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SCULPTURES. 


5 


GREAT 


MERICAN 


CULPTURES 


BY 


WILLIAM  J.  CLARK,  JR 


WITH  TWELVE  SUPERB  STEEL  ENGRAVINGS,  INDIA  PROOFS 


PHILADELPHIA 

Gebbie  &  Barrie,  Publishers 

i878 


LIST  OF  ENGRAVINGS,  Page  7 

CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE. 

INTRODUCTION  ANCIENT  AND   MODERN  SCULPTURE,   Q 

CHAPTER  II. 

AMERICAN  SCULPTORS  POWERS  AND   GREENOUGH,  45 

CHAPTER  III. 

CRAWFORD  AND  RANDOLPH  ROGERS,  6 1 

CHAPTER  IV. 

WILLIAM  WETMORE  STORY,  8 1 


6 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

PAGE. 

ROBERTS,  BAILLY,  HARNISCH  AND   RUSH,  96 

CHAPTER  VI. 

BROWN,  WARD,  PALMER,  CONNELLY  AND   MOZIER,  Ill 

CHAPTER  VII. 

GOULD,  SIMMONS,  BARTHOLOMEW  AND  AKERS,  122 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HARRIET  HOSMER  AND   OTHER  FEMALE  SCULPTORS 


ARTIST.  ENGRAVER 


Beatrice  Cenci,  H.  Hosmer,   W.  Roffe,  .  .  .  Frontispiece. 

The  Greek  Slave,  Hiram  Powers,  TV.  Roffc,   Page  45 

Nydia,   Randolph  Rogers   S.  J.  Ferris,  ...  61 

A  Sibyl  W.  W.  Story   E.  W.  Stoddart,  .  81 

Medea,  W.  W.Story,  J.  Serz   89 

Premiere  Pose,  Howard  Roberts,   J.  Dndensing,   .  .  96 

The  Angel  at  the  Sepulchre,  Palmer,   R.  A.  Artlett,   .  .  1 1 1 

Ophelia,  Connolly,    S.J.  Ferris,  ...  115 

The  Prodigal  Son,  Jl f osier,  W.  Roffe,   121 

The  West  Wind,  Gould,  J.  Serz,   125 

Ganymede,  Bartholomew   J.  H.  Baker,-.  .  .  129 

Jochebed,  F.Simmons,  W.  Roffe   137 

7 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES 


CHAPTER  I. 
ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE 

HOSE  who  are  unwilling  to  go  further  back  in  their  speculations 
upon  the  origin  of  sculpture  than  positive  evidence  will  carry 
them,  attribute  the  invention  to  the  ancient  Egyptians,  and  they 
find  an  argument  in  the  highly-finished  system  of  hieroglyphic, 
or  image-writing,  which  that  people  carried  to  such  perfection,  and  imagine 
it  to  have  furnished  the  first  rudiments  of  sculpture.  That  this  is  a  probable 
and  natural  origin  of  the  practice,  (as,  beyond  all  question,  it  is,)  furnishes 
no  argument  which  is  not  perfectly  available  to  those  who  would  contend 
for  the  probability  of  its  having  existed  from  a  period  far  more  remote. 
All  the  most  ancient  writings  extant  are  in  a  language  which,  without 
regard  to  the  characters  by  which  these  writings  were  described  and  per- 
petuated, is  hieroglyphic  or  picture-writing — every  word  being,  as  respects 
its  expression,  as  nearly  as  possible  a  picture  or  an  image.  It  is  in  vain 
to  inquire  now  how  such  figurative  words  should  have  first  occurred  to 
the  imagination ;   but  their  having  done  so  shows  the  natural  resort  of 

9 


lO 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


the  mind  to  express  immaterial  thought  by  material  forms,  and  one  sen- 
sible object  by  means  of  another, — and  goes,  in  the  next  stage,  to  explain 
the  reason  which  suggested  the  figurative  mode  of  their  written  transmission. 
"  The  author  of  a  figurative  expression  must  have  a  figurative  idea  in  his 
mind ;  and  that  is  a  hieroglyphic  which  might  as  well  be  painted  or 
sculptured  as  written,  and  with  infinitely  greater  effect  on  the  reader."  But 
the  very  same  necessity  for  hitting  on  expedients  for  the  transmission  of 
thought  must  have  existed  long  before  the  days  of  the  Egyptians ;  and 
the  universal  principles  of  the  human  mind,  impelled  by  the  same  urgency 
and  subjected  to  the  same  natural  and  moral  influences,-  would  probably 
act  uniformly,  and  tend  to  similar  results.  That  such  was  the  case  with 
the  Mexicans,  who  practised  an  ideal,  or  picture-writing  similar  to  that  of 
the  Egyptians,  when  first  discovered  by  the  Spaniards,  strongly  supports  this 
view  of  the  case ;  and  it  may  be  added,  in  reference  to  the  first  step  of 
this  theory,  that  the  language  of  our  own  Indian,  when  first  he  was  seen 
on  his  hunting-grounds,  had  a  figurativeness  of  thought  and  expression 
more  than  Orientally  picturesque.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  (even  were 
there  none  of  what  may  be  called  secondary  evidence  to  the  contrary) 
that  man  should  have  lived  between  sixteen  and  seventeen  hundred  years 
from  the  Mosaic  era  of  the  creation  to  the  Flood  of  Noah,  without  in- 
venting some  method  for  the  perpetuation  or  transmission  of  his  thoughts ; 
and  not  likely  that  he  should,  under  identical  influences,  have  been  led  to 
different  modes  from  those  which  we  know  to  have  uniformly  suggested 
themselves,  in  the  same  circumstances,  elsewhere.  In  falling  in,  therefore, 
with  the  general  belief  that  hieroglyphic  writing  furnishes  the  first  rudiments 
of  sculpture,  we  find  in  it  a  reason  for  supposing  that  the  latter  must 
have  existed,  as  an  art,  amongst  the  nations  of  the  antediluvian  world. 
For  ourselves,  indeed,  and  as  a  matter  of  conjecture,  we  can  have  very 
little  doubt  that,  like  the  other  arts,  it  had  in  all  probability  attained  a  point 
of  perfection  ere  the  flood  far  beyond  that  to  which  the  inferences  already 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


mentioned  lead,  and  at  which  they  leave  us.  The  manner  in  which  the 
Arts  of  Design  grow  out  of  each  other  (the  principles  of  two  of  them — 
painting  and  sculpture — being  precisely  the  same,  up  to  the  point  at 
which  they  separate,  one  for  the  imitation  of  colour,  and  the  other  for 
that  of  actual  and  rounded  forms)  renders  it  unlikely, — admitting  what 
we  have  endeavoured  to  argue  for,  that  the  first  stage  had  been  at- 
tained,— that  the  restless  and  enterprising  mind  of  man  should  have 
paused  over  its  imperfect  knowledge,  for  a  period  of  which  the  post- 
diluvian world  furnishes  no  example.  But,  the  fact  is,  we  find  mention 
made  in  the  Scriptures,  long  before  the  flood,  of  a  city  built  by  Cain,  the 
inhabitants  of  which  are  distinguished  from  "  such  as  dwell  in  tents,"  in  a 
manner  to  create  the  inference  that  it  must  have  been  composed  of 
dwellings  having  some  architectural  pretension;  and,  but  a  few  genera- 
tions later,  we  have  it  stated  that  Jubal  was  "the  father  of  all  such  as 
handle  the  harp  and  organ,"  and  Tubal  Cain  the  "instructor  of  every 
artificer  in  brass  and  iron,"  leaving  it  to  be  undoubtedly  deduced  that 
the  arts,  both  of  life  and  taste,  were  progressing  in  influential  con- 
nection. And  in  truth  the  inference  is  irresistible,  that  both  art  and 
science  must  have  made  considerable  progress  amongst  a  people  fur- 
nished with  the  skill  and  possessed  of  the  implements  necessary  for  the 
construction  of  such  a  vessel  as  the  ark.  We  find,  too,  at  a  period 
little  remote  from  the  subsiding  of  the  waters,  works  undertaken  of  such 
gigantic  enterprise,  and  implying  such  an  acquaintance  with  the  princi- 
ples, at  least  of  science,  and  their  practical  application,  as  do  not  permit 
us,  from  any  other  experience  which  we  have  of  the  progressive  nature 
of  knowledge,  to  believe  that  such  an  acquaintance  could  have  been 
the  entire  growth  of  the  period  since  the  flood,  and  compel  us  to  suppose 
that  it  formed  a  part  of  that  legacy  from  the  old  world  to  the  new, 
which  Moses — the  orphan  of  the  one  and  the  patriarch  of  the  other — 
was  appointed,  by  the  aid  of  his  family,  to  take  charge  of  and  dispense. 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


Two  generations  only  after  the  flood,  "  when  men  began  to  multiply  upon 
the  earth,"  we  are  told  that  Nimrod's  followers  built,  on  the  plain  of  Shinar, 
"  a  city,  and  a  tower  whose  top  should  reach  unto  heaven ;"  and  we  have 
allusion  to  the  manner  in  which  they  made  bricks  and  prepared  mortar  for 
that  purpose.  We  have,  at  any  rate,  evidence  to  show  that  the  Chaldeans 
were  in  possession  of  the  art  of  sculpture,  at  least  in  its  early  stage  of 
hieroglyphic  writing,  before  the  Egyptians.  Berosus  relates  that  the  temple 
of  Belus,  at  Babylon,  exhibited  on  its  walls,  representations,  both  in 
sculpture  and  painting,  of  all  the  terrific  and  monstrous  forms  which  peopled 
chaos,  previous  to  the  creation.  And  as  Chaldea  was  the  first  region  of 
the  earth  which  was  peopled  after  the  flood,  and  it  further  appearing,  from 
Berosus  and  from  Pliny,  that  the  art  of  engraving  on  bricks,  baked  in  the 
sun,  was  there  carried  to  a  considerable  degree  of  perfection,  at  a  very 
early  period  (not  to  mention  the  eastern  tradition  which  asserts  that  Terah, 
the  father  of  Abraham,  was  a  sculptor),  the  probability  seems,  for  all  the 
reasons  which  we  have  given,  very  strong,  that  that  people  derived  their 
knowledge  of  the  rudiments  of  sculpture  from  their  antediluvian  progenitors, 
and  transmitted  the  art  to  their  Egyptian  neighbours. 

Mr.  Bromley,  in  his  History  of  the  Fine  Arts,  has  laboured  to  prove 
that  the  invention  of  sculpture,  as  an  art,  is  due  to  the  Scythians ;  who, 
according  to  him,  as  early  as  300  years  after  the  deluge,  extended  their 
conquests  over  the  greater  part  of  Asia,  under  Bruma,  a  descendant  of 
Magog,  the  son  of  Japhet,  and  author  of  the  Braminical  doctrines,  and 
diffused  the  principles  of  the  Scythian  Mythology  over  Egypt,  Phoenicia, 
the  Asiatic  Continent,  and  Greece.  Herodotus,  on  the  other  hand  (whose 
researches  on  this  subject  were  made  in  the  countries  themselves  of  which 
he  speaks,  and  whose  veracity  and  correctness  of  view  have  been  confirmed 
by  each  new  accession  which  has  been  made  to  our  knowledge  of  them, 
in  modern  times),  expressly  assigns  its  origin  to  the  Egyptians.     It  seems 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


13 


useless,  however,  to  follow  up  an  inquiry  the  links  of  which  are  so  involved, 
at  times,  and  at  others  so  broken  and  scattered,  by  the  casualties  of  ages, 
over  the  countries  to  which  it  refers.  We  have  alluded  to  these  conflicting 
theories,  as  showing  that,  wherever  a  vestige  of  substantial  evidence  can 
be  traced,  or  an  argument  from  inductive  evidence  drawn,  they  at  least 
combine  to  prove  the  universal  existence  of  the  practice  of  sculpture, 
however  derived.  For  ourselves — believing,  as  we  have  already  said,  in 
the  first  instance,  that  it  is  one  of  those  modes  which  would  most  obviously 
suggest  themselves,  everywhere,  in'  the  earliest  stages  of  society,  for  the 
expression  and  communication  of  thought,  and  that  it  would,  in  an  order 
as  natural  and  uniform,  be  very  early  advanced  into  a  vehicle  for  the 
perpetuation  of  feeling  and  sentiment,  whether  religious  or  domestic, 
whether  of  the  imagination  or  the  heart;  and  believing,  also,  as  regards 
the  apparent  order  of  its  real  and  actual  transmission,  that  it  must  have 
attained  some  degree  of  perfection  before  the  flood,  and  been  reproduced, 
with  the  other  arts  of  life  or  taste  by  its  survivors,  upon  the  plains  of 
Chaldea,  and  by  them,  of  course,  carried  in  their  migrations  to  those 
other  lands  which  they  peopled; — believing,  thus,  that  the  chain  of  its 
existence  is  unbroken,  at  least  in  the  East,  it  must  still  be  admitted  that 
the  chain  of  evidence  is  not;  and,  were  we  writing  a  history  of  the  art 
(which  we  are  not),  we  should  be  compelled  to  place  the  commencement 
of  its  authentic  records  in  Egypt  or  Hindustan,  where  first  begins  the 
positive  testimony  derived  from  a  vast  body  of  actual  remains.  From 
this  period,  we  are  able — notwithstanding  the  ruin  and  desolation  which 
have  overwhelmed  most  of  the  Asiatic  empires,  and  brought  the  desert 
on  to  the  site  of  their  stately  cities — to  trace,  in  a  tolerably  connected 
series,  the  steps  by  which  it  has  descended  to  Western  Europe,  and  to 
our  own  day.  And  though  this  is  the  office  of  the  historian,  rather  than 
the  purpose  of  these  introductory  remarks,  yet  a  slight  sketch  of  its 
progress,  will,  necessarily,  be  given  in  our  attempt  to  point  out  the  principal 


'4 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


periods  at  which  it  flourished,  and  the  long  and  painful  march  by  which 
it  attained  to  perfection. 

The  earliest  written  mention  of  the  arts  of  design  which  we  possess 
is  in  the  oldest  of  our  books — the  Bible;  and  (pointing  to  a  period 
antecedent  to  that  at  which  the  descendants  of  Abraham  had  the  opportunity 
of  learning  the  arts  and  the  idolatry  of  the  Egyptians  by  residence  amongst 
them)  comes  in  corroboration  of  our  belief  that  the  art  in  question  had 
been  saved  from  the  wreck  of  the  old  world,  by  the  original  dwellers  in 
Chaldea.  The  first  notice  of  images  occurs  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  where 
Rachel  is  said  to  have  stolen  the  Teraphim,  or  idols,  of  her  father  Laban, 
the  Syrian,  and  carried  them  with  her  into  Canaan: — and,  shortly  afterwards, 
we  have  an  order  of  Jacob's,  to  his  household,  to  deliver  up  to  him  their 
idols.  In  the  same  book,  mention  is  also  made  of  the  signet  of  Judah. 
From  this  time  the  Sacred  Scriptures  furnish  us  with  continual  allusions 
tO)  and  evidences  of,  the  practice  of  sculpture — both  in  the  service  of 
idolatry,  such  as  the  Israelites  had  learnt  it  in  Egypt  (as  in  the  case  of 
the  golden  calf,  made  by  them,  under  the  directions  of  Aaron,  during  the 
absence  of  Moses  in  the  mount,  and  which,  no  doubt,  represented  the 
Egyptian  Apis),  and  in  the  service  of  their  own  religion,  as  appointed  by 
the  express  ordinance  of  the  true  God.  The  earliest  sculptors  whose 
names  have  come  down  to  us,  Aholiab  and  Bezaleel,  received  their 
commission  and  their  inspiration  directly  from  the  same  source;  and  were 
appointed  by  the  Most  High  himself  to  fashion  the  works  which  He 
prescribed  as  the  adornments  of  His  tabernacle,  and  to  sculpture  the 
cherubim,  whose  wings  were  destined  to  shadow  the  ark  of  His  covenant. 
It  cannot  be  overlooked,  in  any  work  which  professes  to  describe,  however 
cursorily,  the  progress  of  this  art,  that  it  was  thus  early  adopted  by  God 
himself  into  the  service  of  His  own  religion,  and  promoted  by  Him  to 
the  must  important  purposes — the  representation  of  divine  attributes,  or 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


IS 


of  the  symbols  of  divine  providence.  After  the  establishment  of  the 
Israelites  in  Canaan,  there  are  continual  indications  of  Hebrew  art — from 
the  allusion  contained  in  the  Song  of  Deborah  and  Barak,  to  those  who 
delineate  with  the  pen  or  pencil  of  the  writer;  and  the  mention  of  the 
images  (graven  and  molten)  made  for  Micah,  down  to  the  account  of  that 
most  magnificent  production  of  all,  the  Temple  of  Solomon,  on  which 
were  lavished  all  the  resources  of  surpassing  wealth,  and,  it  is  not  to  be 
doubted,  of  consummate  art.  Of  these  specimens  of  early  sculpture, 
however,  we  have  nothing  left  but  the  written  records,  which  derive — as, 
in  this  case,  they  happily  need — no  corroboration  from  existing  monuments. 
The  utter  devastation  which  has  overwhelmed  the  lofty  cities  of  Asia,  once 
the  seats  of  arts  and  science,  has  swept  away  all  memorials  of  the  old 
Patriarchs — of  Moses  the  deliverer,  and  even  of  the  gorgeous  Solomon, 
whose  works  were  so  many  and  so  vast,  that  the  traditions  of  the  East 
suppose  him  to  have  ruled  by  talismans,  and  worked  by  the  aid  of  genii. 
Of  the  whole  labors  of  Jewish  art,  but  one  solitary  remain  has  come  down 
to  our  times — viz.  the  sculptured  bas-relief  on  the  arch  of  Titus.  As  for 
the  monuments  known  as  the  Sepulchres  of  the  Prophets,  which  exist  in 
Syria,  at  the  present  day,  they  bear  undeniable  evidences  of  Roman  or 
Greek  origin,  and  must  have  been  erected  at  a  period  long  subsequent  to 
the  days  of  the  prophets.  Neither  is  our  research  after  the  sculptured 
memorials  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  of  Semiramis,  or  of  Belus,  more  satisfactory. 
We  are,  again,  confined  to  the  written  record.  We  have  no  means  of 
knowing  what  kind  of  a  "golden  image"  it  was  which  "Nebuchadnezzar, 
the  king,  set  up."  From  Herodotus,  we  have  a  description  of  the  temple 
of  Jupiter  Belus,  at  Babylon,  with  its  statues  of  solid  gold;  and  Diodorus 
Siculus  has  described  the  sculptured  palaces  which  Queen  Semiramis  built 
in  the  city  of  the  Euphrates.  But  Babylon  herself  affords  no  evidence  of 
her  former  grandeur; — "the  wild  beasts  of  the  desert  lie  there,"  as  Isaiah 
prophesied  they  should — the  "daughter  of  the  Chaldeans"  hath  long  since 


i6 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


"gotten  her  into  darkness" — the  "virgin  daughter  of  Babylon"  hath,  indeed 
and  literally,  "come  down  to  sit  in  the  dust"; — and  from  her  buried  soil, 
the  "lady  of  kingdoms"  yields  up  no  memorials  of  her  ancient  sculptures. 

The  Persians  are  not  supposed  to  have  ever  made  any  distinguished 
figure  in  the  arts  of  design;  for  which  two  reasons  have  been  assigned. 
The  long,  flowing  robes  which  composed  their  dress,  and  concealed  the 
person,  prevented  them  from  paying  much  attention  to  the  beauties  of 
form;  and  the  genius  of  Mithraism,  their  religion — in  which  the  Deity 
was  worshipped,  in  the  symbol  of  fire,  and  which  taught  them  that  it  was 
impious  to  represent  him  under  a  human  form — rendered  their  exercise 
of  the  art  of  sculpture,  at  least  in  the  branch  of  statuary  almost  impossible 
in  that  country — it  not  being  their  custom  to  raise  statues  to  their  illustrious 
men.     Herodotus  says  that  the  Persians  had  neither  temples  nor  statues. 

Nevertheless,  although  totally  absent  amongst  them  one  of  the 
impelling  causes  to  which  the  arts,  elsewhere,  have  owed  their  encourage- 
ment and  progress  (though  not,  as  has  been  said,  their  origin),  the  giant 
ruins  scattered  throughout  the  dreary  solitude  of  the  vast  deserts  which 
form  a  great  part  of  the  site  of  the  ancient  empire,  present  sufficient 
remains  of  sculpture  to  enable  us  to  form  a  correct  notion  of  the  degree 
of  excellence  to  which  it  had  attained  amongst  this  people.  They  exist, 
as  may  be  supposed,  from  what  we  have  said,  principally  in  the 
embellishment  of  the  "house  of  feasting"  and  the  "house  of  mourning" 
— the  palace  and  the  tomb.  Of  these,  the  ruins  of  Persepolis  offer,  in 
what  remains  of  its  palace  (the  ancient  abode  of  the  Persian  monarchs, 
described,  by  the  Persian  writers,  as  the  "palace  of  a  thousand  columns," 
and  destroyed  by  Alexander),  a  good  example,  as  do  also  the  sculptures 
on  the  Tombs  of  the  Kings.  They  are  very  rude,  giving  the  idea  of  art 
in  its  infancy,  although  their  antiquity  is  not  supposed  to  go  higher  than 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


17 


the  period  when  the  seat  of  empire  was  removed  from  Babylon  to  Shushan, 
by  Darius  Hystaspes,  the  Ahasuerus  of  Scripture.  They  are,  like  everything 
about  them,  on  a  giant  scale;  and  the  basso-relievos  on  the  walls  are 
said  to  have  some  resemblance  to  the  style  of  the  Egyptian  basso-relievos, 
found  amongst  the  ruins  of  Thebes.  Memes  speaks  of  them  as  bearing 
decided  traits  of  the  Grecian  school,  and  assigns  them  to  an  age  subsequent 
to  that  of  Cyrus.  Thirteen  hundred  figures  of  men  and  animals  have 
been  counted,  as  remaining  in  the  vast  ruins  of  the  palace  of  this  pillared 
Persepolis  alone,  once  amongst  the  wonders  of  ancient  Asia,  and  now 
one  of  the  miracles  of  the  desert  But  few  sculptured  remains  are  found 
amid  the  gigantic  masonry  of  Baalbec — the  ancient  Heliopolis,  or  City  of 
the  Sun.  Palmyra,  the  Tadmor  of  the  wilderness,  mentioned  in  the  Book 
of  Kings,  as  having  been  built  by  Solomon,  exhibits  ruins  more  properly 
architectural  than  sculptural;  but  what  there  are  of  the  latter  are  referable 
to  a  far  later  period,  belonging  to  the  times  of  Hadrian,  and  the  other 
Roman  emperors,  who  rebuilt  this  city.  The  Tadmor  of  Scripture  has 
long  since  disappeared.  Of  the  ancient  Tyre  —  the  "joyous  city" — the 
"renowned  city" — as  the  prophet  calls  it  (destroyed  by  Nebuchadnezzar), 
and  its  Hercules,  described  by  Ezekiel,  no  relic  is  left;  although  Herodotus/ 
who  sailed  in  search  of  it,  saw  and  describes  the  temple,  but  without  its 
god. 

As  examples  of  Hindoo  art,  it  is  only  necessary  to  allude  to  the 
stupendous  excavations  of  Ellora  and  Elephantis,  and  the  vast  caverns 
cut  everywhere  along  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  sculptured  all  over  with 
mythological  personages  and  allegorical  figures,  illustrative  of  the  religion 
of  Brahma.  In  Egypt, — which,  according  to  Herodotus,  is  said  to  have 
once  contained  20,000  populous  cities,  and  where  everything  connected 
with  the  labour  of  man  appears  to  have  been  on  a  scale  which  has  something 
like  the  same  relation  to  modern  artificership,  as  that  presented  by  the 


i8 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


giant  features  of  American  nature  when  brought  into  comparison  with  the 
more  minute  and  beautiful  character  of  European  scenery, — we  have  still, 
besides  the  Pyramids,  the  remains  of  five  immense  palaces  and  thirty-four 
temples,  including  gigantic  statues,  and  sculptural  representations  innume- 
rable, to  astonish  and  instruct  us.  From  Herodotus,  besides,  we  have 
minute  descriptions  of  much  that  is  now  lost  or  scattered  by  the  lapse  of 
ages  and  the  tempests  of  war.  It  is  not  possible  here  to  do  more  than 
allude  by  name  to  some  of  these  amazing  works ;  and  neither  is  it 
necessary,  as  the  lights  thrown  of  late  years  upon  Egyptian  antiquities  by 
many  publications  have  rendered  them  more  familiar  to  most  of  our  readers 
than  are  the  monuments  of  our  own  country.  In  Egypt  all  is  colossal. 
The  two  statues  mentioned  by  Herodotus  as  placed,  one  in  front  of  the 
temple  of  Vulcan,  at  Memphis,  and  the  other  in  the  city  of  Sais,  each 
seventy-four  feet  in  length ;  the  two  supposed  statues  of  Memnon,  at 
Thebes,  each  fifty-eight  feet  high ;  the  Sphynx,  modelled  upon  a  rock 
ninety-five  feet  in  length,  and  having  thirty-eight  feet  in  height,  from  the 
knees  to  the  top  of  the  head,  are  (to  say  nothing  of  the  Pyramids)  examples. 
The  great  temples  of  Karnac  and  Luxor,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Nile 
(which,  together  with  those  of  Medinet  Abou  and  the  Memnonium,  on  the 
left  bank,  are  supposed  to  occupy  the  site  of  the  ancient  Thebes) ;  the 
temples  of  Hermopolis,  Dendera,  Latopolis,  Apollonopolis ;  and  those  of 
the  islands  of  Philae  and  Elephantine,  all  present  ruins,  crowded  with 
statues,  and  covered  in  pillar  and  portico,  within  and  without,  with  hiero- 
glyphical  representations,  connected  with  the  mysteries  and  sacrifices  of 
their  worship.  The  earlier  of  these  statues,  those  executed  previous  to  the 
conquest  of  Egypt  by  Cambyses,  the  son  of  Cyrus,  and,  indeed,  we  may 
say,  down  to  the  time  of  the  Macedonian  conquest,  under  Alexander  the 
Great  (for  the  Persian  sway  rather  put  a  negative  upon  the  exercise,  than 
changed  the  forms  of  sculpture),  exhibit  the  entire  absence  of  almost  all 
those  resources  by  which  the  art  was  finally  perfected,  including  the  total 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


19 


want  of  anatomical,  and  lamentable  deficiency  of  mechanical,  knowledge. 
Yet  an  air  of  imposing  grandeur  and  majesty  is  communicated  to  many 
of  them,  in  the  absence  of  all  symmetry  and  all  expression,  not  only  by 
the  breadth  and  simplicity  of  their  proportions,  but  by  the  air  of  passionless 
calm  and  superhuman  repose  which  that  very  absence  creates.  Of  Egyptian 
art,  in  general,  we  may  add,  that  it  wears  a  character  of  the  sublime,  and 
creates  an  impression  of  the  awful,  at  once  from  the  vastness  of  its 
dimensions,  and  the  solemn  nature  of  the  purposes  to  which  it  is  applied. 
The  sculptures  of  Egypt  are  chiefly  employed  either  in  the  decoration  of 
the  tomb,  or  the  illustration  of  a  religion  whose  mysteries  are  almost  as 
dark  and  awful  as  those  of  the  grave  itself;  and,  in  either  case,  the  effect 
is  heightened  and  solemnized  by  the  manner  in  which  this  species  of 
illustration  is  employed.  The  whole  of  the  Lybian  mountain  is  pierced, 
from  its  base  to  three-fourths  of  its  elevation,  with  sepulchral  grottos, 
containing  long  passages,  supported  on  innumerable  columns  or  pilastres, 
and  conducting,  gloomily,  to  chambers  of  the  dead.  In  a  ravine  of  the 
mountain,  flanked  by  the  bed  of  a  torrent,  stand  the  Tombs  of  the  Kings, 
composed  of  galleries  and  corridors,  crowded  with  pillars,  and  opening  on 
saloons,  whose  walls  are  covered  with  pictures  and  sculptured  hieroglyphics. 
The  quarries  of  Silsilis,  in  Upper  Egypt,  present,  also,  funeral  chambers 
and  passages,  containing  figures,  as  large  as  life,  cut  in  the  native  rock ; 
and  all  along  the  borders  of  the  Nile  are  found  tombs,  similarly  piercing 
the  bases  of  the  heights,  and  surmounted  by  porticos,  entablatures,  and 
cornices,  all  hewn  out  of  the  solid  granite.  Such  are  the  sublime 
characteristics  of  the  art,  in  a  country  in  which  the  natural  quarry  itself 
has  been  made  the  chamber  of  sculpture,  and  the  living  mountain  the 
block ! 

On  the  subject  of  Egyptian  sculpture  we  can  only  add,  that  after 
having  been  ransacked  by  the  Macedonian  Conqueror,  for  the  purpose  of 


20 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


adorning  his  rising  city  of  Alexandria,  it  puts  on  new  forms,  or  rather 
modifications  of  form,  under  the  influence  of  Greek  art,  in  the  reigns  of 
the  Ptolomies;  and  more  conspicuously  so  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Romans,  in  the  days  of  their  emperor  Hadrian. 

Of  Chinese  sculpture,  as  of  everything  else  relating  to  that  singular 
and  ingenious  people — who  lay  claim  to  a  higher  antiquity  and  earlier 
cultivation  than  any  other  nation — our  knowledge  is,  from  their  exclusive 
policy,  too  limited  to  speak  with  anything  like  certainty.  Specimens  of 
their  ornamental  carving  have  reached  us,  of  the  most  minute  and  elaborate 
beauty  of  finish ;  but  in  sculpture,  as  an  intellectual  art,  or  in  any  of  its 
higher  walks,  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  they  have  attained  to 
any  proficiency.  As  the  best  authorities  concur  in  the  belief  that  China 
was  originally  colonized  from  the  banks  of  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges,  it 
is  probable  that  they  took  with  them,  at  a  very  remote  period,  the  arts  of 
India,  in  their  earliest  state  of  advancement;  and  the  jealous  system  of  the 
empire,  which  has  so  long  shut  them  within  their  own  limits,  and  prevented 
that  intercommunication  by  which  knowledge  is  promoted,  has,  in  all 
probability,  in  this — as  we  know  it  has  in  other  things — confined  them  to 
ancient  forms,  and  retained  amongst  them  primitive  modes  of  thought. 
Unchanging  customs,  of  the  standing  of  thousands  of  years,  and  manners 
such  as  might  have  existed  soon  after  the  Deluge,  are,  in  all  probability, 
connected  with  manifestations  of  feeling  and  methods  of  expression,  in  the 
article  of  art,  which  might  introduce  the  antiquary— could  he  obtain  leisure 
and  unlimited  access  to  them — to  something  like  an  acquaintance  and 
communion  with  the  immediate  descendants  of  Noah.  This  belief  receives 
confirmation  from  such  of  their  medals  and  bronzes  as  we  have  seen. 
Within  the  last  few  centuries,  however,  they  are  supposed  to  have  received 
some  glimpses  of  European  improvement,  through  the  teaching  of  Christian 
missionaries  from  the  west— and  more  especially  of  the  Jesuits,  who  went 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


over  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  so  that  even  this 
remote  and  inaccessible  nation  may  be  said  to  have  felt  the  universal 
influence  of  Greek  art.  In  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  a  number  of 
Chinese  were  sent  to  Paris,  to  be  instructed  in  the  European  arts  of 
designing,  light  and  shadow,  optics,  colour,  and  perspective ;  and,  since 
then,  it  is  generally  believed  (and  probable)  that,  both  in  painting  and 
sculpture,  they  may  have  improved  their  ancient  modes,  by  a  more  spirited 
cultivation  of  these  arts,  and  an  assimilation  to  the  practice  of  European 
nations.  The  tendency  of  their  participation  in  all  recent  International 
Exhibitions,  including  that  of  Philadelphia  in  1876,  shows  a  marked 
departure  from  their  old  exclusiveness. 

We  have  now  reached  a  part  of  our  subject  which  presents  more  open 
and  beaten  ground ;  and  which,  for  that  reason,  as  well  as  on  account  of 
our  limited  space,  must  be  passed  over  in  a  rapid  review.  The  point  at 
which  we  have  arrived  may,  in  fact,  be  said  to  divide  the  subject  into 
two  parts ; — our  past  inquiries  have  been  limited  to  that  species  of  evidence 
which  arises  from  the  post  mortem  examination  of  the  ruined  works  them- 
selves, or  from  the  analogies  which  their  condition  presents,  but  receiving 
no  light  from  the  positive  testimony  of  written  and  contemporary  annals ; 
whereas  we  are  able,  from  a  period  shortly  subsequent  to  that  which  we 
have  now  attained  in  this  sketch,  to  trace  our  onward  way  by  the  light 
of  history,  and  to  follow,  with  something  like  certainty,  the  progress  of  the 
art  in  the  hands  of  that  extraordinary  people  who  stamped  it — as  they  did 
so  many  others — with  the  seal  of  their  own  unrivalled  genius;  and  brought 
it  to  a  perfection  undreamt  of  old,  and  unsurpassed  since;  who  rendered 
it,  in  a  word,  a  fitting  vehicle  for  the  expression  of  the  purest  and  most 
beautiful  and  ideal  mythology  which  the  world  had,  or  has  ever  invented. 

Of  the  earliest  state  of  Greece,  the  accounts  which  we  have  are,  in  a 


22 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


great  measure,  fabulous;  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  she  was,  originally, 
civilized  by  colonics  from  Egypt  and  Phoenicia;  who  brought  with  them 
the  religion,  letters,  and  arts,  of  their  parent  country,  and  sculpture  among 
the  rest.  That  the  gods  of  Greece  were  of  Egyptian  and  Phoenician 
extraction,  is  undeniable.  Of  the  condition  or  progress  of  art  in  Greece, 
however,  previous  to  the  time  of  Daedalus,  we  have  but  few  hints, — although 
it  is  probable  that  the  little  state  of  Sicyon  (whose  academy  of  design 
became,  subsequently,  one  of  the  most  famous  in  the  land,  and  on  which 
has  been  conferred  the  venerable  appellation  of  "Mother  of  the  Arts"), 
was  signalized  by  the  earliest  school  of  Greek  sculpture,  as  it  was  certainly 
the  most  ancient  of  the  Greek  republics.  The  beautiful  story  narrating 
the  accidental  circumstance  in  which  this  school  had  its  origin,  and  which 
makes  love  the  parent  of  the  arts  of  Greece,  must  not  be  omitted  here. 
Its  foundation  is  attributed  to  a  Sicyonian  potter  named  Dibutades ;  to 
whom  the  practice  of  modeling  is  said  to  have  been  suggested  by  an 
ingenious  device,  imparted  to  his  daughter  by  her  own  fond  and  grieving 
heart.  On  the  eve  of  bidding  farewell  to  her  lover,  who  was  about  to 
depart  on  a  distant  journey,  her  eye  was  caught  by  the  profile  of  his 
features,  thrown  upon  the  opposite  wall,  from  a  lamp,  by  whose  light  she 
watched  him  as  he  slept;  and  affection  inspired  her  with  the  idea  of  fixing 
the  outline  there,  by  tracing  round  the  shadow,  for  the  solace  of  her 
lonely  hours  in  his  absence.  This  outline  the  father  subsequently  filled 
up  with  clay, — thus  forming  the  most  ancient  medallion ;  and  this  specimen 
of  antique  art  existed  (and  both  from  the  pathetic  nature  of  its  origin,  and 
the  important  results  to  which  it  subsequently  led,  was  regarded  with  the 
highest  interest)  down  to  the  time  of  the  elder  Pliny.  Such  is  an  example 
of  the  beautiful  traditions  which,  in  this  country  insensibly  sprang  up,  and 
associated  themselves  with  all  the  doings  of  its  refined  and  spiritually 
minded  people;  and  the  fine  sentiment  in  which  they  originated,  constitutes 
the  true  charm  by  which  they  worked  their  miracles,  in  every  department 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


23 


of  art,  and  whose  various  manifestations  have  invested  all  the  scenes  and 
records  of  the  land  with  the  poetry  of  graceful  and  undying  thought. 

Another  of  the  oldest  of  the  Greek  schools  of  sculpture,  and  one 
which,  likewise,  subsequently  arrived  at  the  highest  eminence,  arose  in  the 
small  commercial  island  of  /Egina ;  and  was  early  illustrated  by  the  labours 
of  Smillis,  whose  works  are  said,  even  in  that  remote  age,  to  have  displayed 
"a  gravity  and  austere  grandeur,  the  principles  of  that  style  visible,  still, 
in  the  noble  marbles  which  once  adorned,  in  yEgina,  the  temple  of  Jupiter 
Panhcllenius."  But  the  first  epoch  of  improvement  in  Athens — afterwards 
the  metropolis  of  the  arts — is  connected  with  the  name  of  Daedalus,  the 
famous  builder  of  the  Cretan  labyrinth,  and  cotemporary  of  Theseus,  whom 
he  accompanied  from  Crete  to  Athens  (having,  it  is  said,  previously 
executed  a  fine  portico  to  the  temple  of  Vulcan,  at  Memphis),  and  settled 
there  about  1200  years  before  Christ.  According  to  the  testimony  of 
Pausanias,  his  works,  though  rude  and  uncouth,  had  yet  "  something  as 
of  divinity  in  their  appearance;"  although  his  statues  (as  well  as  those 
of  his  disciple,  Endaeus)  were  merely  formed  of  wood.  The  Ionian  school, 
about  777  years  before  Christ,  produced,  at  Samos,  Rhascus,  who  first 
obtained  celebrity  as  a  sculptor  in  brass;  and  in  the  following  century, 
at  Chios,  Malas,  the  father  of  a  race  of  sculptors,  and  who  first  introduced 
the  use  of  the  material  to  which  sculpture  mainly  owes  its  perfection — 
viz.  marble.  Towards  the  commencement  of  the  next  century,  the  school 
of  Sicyon  was  illustrated  by  the  most  famous  of  her  ancient  masters,  the 
brothers  Dipaenus  and  Scyllis,  "  whose  age,"  says  Memes,  "  forms  an  era 
in  the  history  of  the  ancient  art,  making  the  first  decided  advances  towards 
the  mastery  of  the  succeeding  style."  Of  the  previous  condition  of  the 
art,  in  which  the  genius  of  these  brothers  is  stated  to  have  effected  so 
material  an  improvement,  some  idea  may  be  obtained  from  an  examination 
of  the  colossal  busts  of  Hercules  and  Apollo  (conjectured  to  be  the  work 


24 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


of  these  masters),  now  existing  in  the  British  Museum.  "The  fiftieth 
Olympiad,"  says  the  author  above  quoted,  "shows  all  the  necessary 
inventions  and  principles  of  mechanical  art  fully  known,  and  universally 
practised."  Cotemporary  with  the  slow  progress  of  art  in  Greece,  the 
school  of  Magna  Grsecia, — whose  chief  seats  were  at  Rhegium  and  Crotona, 
in  Italy ;  and  in  Sicily,  at  Syracuse  and  Agrigentum, — had  been  rising  into 
importance  and  excellence,  through  a  period  of  2000  years.  During  the 
former  part  of  the  sixth  century,  the  school  of  Sicyon  retained  its  pre- 
eminence ;  sending  forth  from  its  bosom  numerous  artists,  who  maintained 
its  cause  in  other  states.  Among  these  were  Perillus,  at  Agrigentum,  who 
cast  the  famous  bull  of  Phalaris.  The  close  of  the  same  century  produced, 
at  Chios,  the  two  brothers  Bupalus  and  Anthermus,  who  threw  all  preceding 
sculptors  into  shade.  In  their  hands  the  discovery  of  their  ancestors, 
sculpture  in  marble,  made  rapid  strides  to  perfection ;  and  from  their  days 
down  to  the  period  of  the  battle  of  Marathon,  the  art  was  exercised, 
throughout  the  whole  of  Greece,  with  a  vigour  unknown  before,  and 
continually  gaining  strength.  It  was  during  this  period,  that,  under  the 
enlightened  patronage  of  Pisistratus  (a  prince,  or  tyrant  as  he  was  called, 
who  first  sought  to  give  his  country  the  empire  of  literature  and  the  arts), 
the  foundations  were  laid,  at  Athens,  of  that  greatest  school,  whence 
afterwards  issued  the  miracles  and  canons  of  sculpture.  Amongst  the 
names  of  the  illustrious  men  whom  he  assembled  around  him,  we  find  the 
famous  one  of  Callimachus;  whose  sculptural  compositions  were  distin- 
guished by  that  lightness  and  grace,  the  perfection  of  which,  in  the  hands 
of  Praxiteles,  subsequently  gave  the  finishing  and  unsurpassable  charm  to 
this,  at  length,  enchanting  art.  Out  of  the  numerous  productions  of  the 
same  period,  in  other  parts  of  Greece,  we  must  select,  for  mention,  the  two 
Muses  of  Canachus  and  Aristocles,  issuing  from  the  school  of  Sicyon, — 
esteemed,  in  that  day,  the  finest  statues  as  yet  executed,  and  one  of  which 
is  conjectured  to  be  the  famous  antique  now  in  the  Barbarini  palace.  But 


ANCIENT  AND   MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


25 


rich  as  this  period  is  in  names  and  works  which  history  has  transmitted 
to  us,  we  must  hasten  forward  to  the  last  grand  era  in  the  upward  progress 
of  Grecian  sculpture.  Indeed,  our  limits  have  not  permitted  our  doing 
more  than  pass  hurriedly  over  the  ground  which  conducts  to  this  point; 
our  object  being  to  trace  the  progress  of  sculpture,  by  its  eras,  without 
permitting  us  to  give  a  list  of  the  many  names  who  contributed  to 
produce  them. 

From  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Marathon,  490  B.C.,  down  to  that  of 
Phidias,  we  find  amongst  the  names  of  those  who  illustrated  and  carried 
forward  the  art,  in  its  now  rapid  and  energetic  march,  those  of  Calamis, 
famous  for  his  horses,  and  whose  statue  of  Apollo  Alexiacos,  the  Deliverer 
from  Evil,  mentioned  both  by  Pliny  and  Pausanias,  is  believed  by  the 
learned  Visconti,  to  be  the  famous  Apollo  Belvidcre ;  Pythagoras  of 
Rhegium,  whom  Quintilian  places  only  below  Myron ;  and  Myron  himself, 
whom  Dr.  Memes  calls,  "the  last  and  greatest  of  the  early  school."  Of 
this  artist's  works  nothing  has  descended  to  us ;  and  our  only  means  of 
forming  a  personal  judgment  of  his  skill  are  derived  from  the  antique 
repetitions  of  his  Discobolos,  more  than  one  of  which  have  reached  our 
times,  and  of  which  there  is  an  ancient  example  in  the  British  Museum. 
But  we  learn  from  the  writers  on  that  period  of  art  that  sculpture,  as  far 
as  it  is  a  representation  of  external  form,  was  perfected  by  him,  and 
prepared  for  the  infusion  of  that  spirituality — that  fire  from  heaven — which, 
in  a  few  years  more,  it  was  to  receive  at  the  hands  of  the  Prometheus  of 
the  art. 

The  merits  of  this  great  artist  (born  about  the  72nd  .Olympiad)  are 
too  well  known  to  require  that  we  should  dwell  upon  them.  It  is  sufficient 
to  observe  that  Phidias  brought  to  the  exercise  of  an  art,  already  advanced 
before  his  day  to  an  excellence  far  surpassing  anything  of  which  the 


26 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


ancients  had  left  an  example,  a  genius  of  the  very  highest  order,  steeped 
in  the  inspiration  of  the  poets,  and  tutored  by  the  wisdom  of  the  philoso- 
phers. By  communicating  to  the  perfect  forms  which  his  predecessors  had 
bequeathed  to  him  that  inspiration,  governed  by  that  wisdom,  he  raised 
sculpture  to  take  her  place  amongst  the  very  first  forms  of  art, — aye,  on 
a  throne  than  which  there  is  none  higher;  communicating  to  it  all  the 
power  which  the  highest  poetry  has  for  elevating  the  imagination,  or 
touching  the  heart.  In  addition  to  this  he  gave,  in  his  execution,  a  softness 
to  flesh,  and  a  flow  to  drapery,  unknown  before  his  day.  Two  of  his 
productions,  the  most  esteemed  amongst  his  cotemporaries,  were  his  ivory 
statues  of  the  Athenian  Minerva  and  the  Olympian  Jupiter;  of  which 
Quintilian  says,  that  they  "seemed  to  have  added  something  to  religion — 
the  majesty  of  the  work  was  so  worthy  of  the  divinity."  The  latter,  and 
most  colossal  of  these,  is  described  by  Flaxman  as  follows :  "  The  great 
work  of  this  chief  of  sculptors,  the  astonishment  and  praise  of  after-ages, 
was  the  Jupiter  at  Elis,  sitting  on  his  throne,  his  left  hand  holding  a 
sceptre,  his  right  extending  victory  to  the  Olympian  conquerors,  his  head 
crowned  with  olive,  and  his  pallium  decorated  with  birds,  beasts,  and 
flowers.  The  four  corners  of  the  throne  were  dancing  Victories,  each 
supported  by  a  Sphynx,  tearing  a  Theban  youth.  At  the  back  of  the 
throne,  above  his  head,  were  the  three  Hours  or  Seasons,  on  one  side, 
and  on  the  other,  the  three  Graces.  On  the  bar  between  the  legs  of  the 
throne,  and  the  panels  or  spaces  between  them,  were  represented  many 
stories; — the  destruction  of  Niobe's  children,  the  labours  of  Hercules,  the 
Delivery  of  Prometheus,  the  Garden  of  Hesperides,  with  the  different 
adventures  of  the  heroic  ages.  On  the  base,  the  battle  of  Theseus  with 
the  Amazons;  on  the  pedestal,  an  assembly  of  the  gods,  the  sun  and 
moon  in  their  cars,  and  the  birth  of  Venus.  The  height  of  the  work  was 
sixty  feet.  The  statue  was  ivory,  enriched  with  the  radiance  of  golden 
ornaments  and  precious  stones,  and  was  justly  esteemed  one  of  the  wonders 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


27 


of  the  world."  Dr.  Memes  describes  it  as  "  in  a  reposing  attitude,  the 
body  naked  to  the  cincture,  the  lower  limbs  clothed  in  a  robe  gemmed 
with  golden  flowers;  the  hair  also  was  of  gold,  bound  with  an  enamelled 
crown ;  the  eyes  of  precious  stones ;  the  rest  of  ivory.  Notwithstanding 
the  gigantic  proportions,  every  part  was  wrought  with  the  most  scrupulous 
delicacy ;  even  the  splendid  throne  was  carved  with  exquisite  nicety."  The 
Minerva  of  the  Parthenon  was  a  figure  forty  feet  in  height,  similarly 
executed,  in  mixed  materials,  some  years  later,  and  wrought  with  equal 
delicacy  and  beauty.  Of  both  these  statues  we  have  minute  and  laudatory 
descriptions  from  Pliny  and  Pausanias.  Yet,  the  fact  of  the  Athenians 
having  preferred  these  splendid  productions  (in  which  the  effect  was 
sought  to  be  heightened  by  the  meretricious  use  of  foreign  accessories)  to 
the  unrivalled  specimens  of  pure  and  self-expressive  sculpture  which  the 
same  master  produced,  proves  that  they  were  behind  the  sculptor,  as 
regarded  the  true  principles  of  taste ;  and  that  the  great  artist  (who  is 
said  to  have  disapproved  of  this  mixed  style)  had  the  weakness  to  suffer 
his  own  judgment,  at  times,  to  be  controlled  by  the  less-instructed  spirit 
of  his  age.  But  it  may  be  that  he  gave  way  only  to  obtain  a  vantage 
ground,  from  which  he  might  lift  up  the  public  mind  to  his  own  standard ; 
and  his  subsequent  example  did  much  to  establish  those  canons  of  pure 
taste,  which  the  world  has  not  yet  seen  reason  to  alter.  Both  these 
magnificent  works,  together  with  the  whole  of  the  statues  executed  in 
bronze,  by  Phidias  (a  branch  of  the  art  which  he  is  said  to  have  carried 
to  a  perfection  never  rivalled),  have  perished ;  and  our  personal  inquiries 
into  the  style  of  this  consummate  artist  are  limited  to  those  marble  remains 
of  the  produce  of  his  chisel,  which  have  survived  his  labours  on  the  more 
durable  material.  Fortunately,  they  exist  in  unquestioned  authenticity  and 
sufficient  abundance  for  our  purpose, — although  in  this  department,  also, 
many  of  his  finest  performances  have  been  lost.  Indeed,  the  number 
and  extent  of  the  works  performed  by,  or  under  the  immediate  direction 


28 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


of,  Phidias,  are  so  great  as  to  fill  the  mind  with  wonder,  and  almost 
disbelief;  and,  true  it  is,  that  so  numerous  and  active  was  the  school  of 
art  which  he  founded,  and  so  illustrious  were  its  pupils,  that  we  are  not 
able,  with  the  assistance  of  the  ancient  writers,  to  separate,  in  all  cases, 
the  actual  works  of  the  master  from  those  of  his  scholars,  which  he 
superintended,  and  to  which  he  gave  the  finishing  touches. 

Of  the  scholars  and  cotemporaries  of  Phidias,  and  of  the  distinguished 
artists  who,  from  the  death  of  the  great  Athenian,  carry  forward  the  history 
of  sculpture  to  the  age  of  Alexander,  we  can  do  little  more  than  merely 
allude  to  the  names  of  a  few.  The  Venus  Aphrodite,  which  has  given 
fame  to  Alcamenes,  the  pupil  of  Phidias,  is  said  to  have  received  its  last 
touches  from  the  master's  hand.  To  Polycletus,  one  of  his  cotemporaries, 
has  been,  by  some,  attributed  a  grandeur  of  style  approaching  to  that 
of  Phidias  himself.  Of  his  two  celebrated  statues,  the  Diadumenos  and 
the  Doryphorus,  the  latter  formed  the  famous  "canon  of  proportion,"  to 
which  all  succeeding  artists  referred,  as  to  an  unerring  rule.  The  celebrated 
statue  of  the  "  Dying  Gladiator "  (more  properly,  as  Winckelman  thinks, 
a  dying  herald  or  hero),  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  Greek  art  in  existence, 
has  been  commonly  ascribed  (some  think  erroneously)  to  Ctesilaus,  a  rival 
of  Phidias.  Of  the  artists  who  flourished  during  the  troubles  of  the 
Peloponnesian  war  we  have  accounts,  or  casual  notices,  of  nearly  fifty,  in 
the  writings  of  Strabo,  Pausanias,  Pliny,  and  others.  To  Scopas  are  ascribed 
the  Townley  Venus  or  Dione,  now  in  the  British  Museum,  and  the  beautiful 
group  of  Niobe  at  Florence.  Winckelman  has  well  divided  the  history 
of  Grecian  art  into  four  periods,  distinguished  by  four  styles.  These  he 
calls  the  Ancient  style,  which  ascends  from  the  time  of  Phidias  back  to  a 
period  beyond  authentic  record;  the  Grand  style,  formed  by  Phidias  himself; 
the  Beautiful,  introduced  by  Praxiteles  and  Lysippus ;  and  the  Imitative, 
practised  by  those  artists  who  copied  the  works  of  the  ancient  masters. 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


29 


Between  the  second  and  third  of  these  the  name  of  Scopas  may  be  placed, 
as  conducting  us,  by  a  gentle  gradation,  from  the  school  of  the  Grand  to 
the  school  of  the  Beautiful ;  and  already  exhibiting,  in  his  works,  much  of 
that  seductive  softness  and  winning  grace  which  characterized  the  practice 
of  Praxiteles,  to  whose  name  we  must  at  once  turn. 

This  great  sculptor  (the  place  of  whose  birth  is  uncertain,  though 
supposed  to  have  been  one  of  the  towns  of  Magna  Graecia)  has  a  name 
in  Greek  art  second  only  to  that  of  Phidias ;  and  which,  perhaps,  need 
scarcely  be  placed  in  a  lower  rank,  when  it  is  considered  that  he  selected 
for  himself  a  somewhat  different  walk,  probably  not  more  from  the  bent 
of  his  taste  than  from  his  wish  to  avoid  such  a  comparison.  The  highest 
point  of  the  sublime  had  been  touched  by  the  chisel  of  the  Athenian ;  and 
his  successor  devoted  himself  to  the  worship  and  illustration  of  beauty. 
His  compositions  are  full  of  a  tender  and  voluptuous  grace,  corrected  and 
chastened  by  a  spirituality  which  redeems  them  from  the  charge  of  the 
sensual.  The  most  celebrated  of  his  works,  which  have  perished,  are  the 
two  statues  of  Venus,  one  draped  and  the  other  naked,  which  he  made 
for  the  selection  of  the  Coans,  who  chose  the  clothed  figure.  The  other 
was  subsequently  purchased  by  the  citizens  of  Cnidos,  and  became  one  of 
the  most  celebrated  statues  in  the  world,  to  see  which  Cnidos  was  visited 
from  many  parts  beyond  seas.  This  figure  was  placed  in  a  temple  open 
on  all  sides,  that  it  might  be  seen  in  every  point  of  view.  It  is  known 
to  us  by  the  description  of  Lucian,  and  by  a  medal  of  Caracalla  and 
Plautilla,  in  the  cabinet  of  France,  on  which  it  is  represented.  It  remained 
in  Cnidos  as  late  as  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Arcadius,  four  hundred 
years  after  Christ;  and  is  supposed  to  have  furnished  the  first  idea  of 
the  Venus  de  Medicis,  which  is  considered  likely  to  be  a  repetition  of 
another  Venus,  mentioned  by  Pliny  as  having  been  executed  subsequently 
by  Praxiteles.     The  Venus  of  Cos  is  supposed  to  be  the  same  as  that 


3° 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


one,  with  an  apple  in  her  hand,  who  is  represented  on  the  reverse  of 
the  Empress  Lucilla's  medals.  The  works  of  this  artist  which  remain, 
either  as  originals  or  in  repetition,  are  his  Cupid,  Apollo,  the  lizard-killer, 
Satyr,  and  Bacchus,  leaning  on  a  fawn. 

Of  the  610  works,  chiefly  in  metal,  ascribed  to  Lysippus,  the  cotem- 
porary  of  Praxiteles,  and  his  rival  in  the  favour  of  Alexander,  we  have 
no  remains.  He  was,  like  Praxiteles,  a  worshipper  of  the  beautiful,  and 
has  left  behind  him  a  reputation  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  the  great 
founder  of  the  school  in  question.  Notwithstanding,  however,  the  exquisite 
delicacy  of  conception  which  has  been  ascribed  as  one  of  his  characteristics, 
there  appears,  at  times,  in  the  selection  of  his  subjects,  and  his  manner 
of  executing  them,  an  occasional  leaning  towards  the  more  sublime  style 
of  their  illustrious  predecessor.  Amongst  his  works  were  a  statue  of 
Jupiter,  60  feet  in  height,  and  twenty-one  equestrian  statues  of  Alexanders 
body-guard,  who  fell  at  the  Granicus. 

That  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  Italy,  whencesoever  sprung,  were 
sculptors  after  the  rude  fashion,  which  we  believe  to  be  common  to  all 
barbarous  nations,  we  have  no  doubt;  but  the  practice  of  sculpture,  as 
anything  like  an  art,  is  commonly  supposed  to  have  travelled  westward 
to  them  by  the  road  of  Greece.  The  accounts  given  by  the  Greek  writers 
concerning  the  emigrants  into  Italy,  who  settled  along  the  western  part 
of  that  coast  (forming  the  colony,  of  whose  later  school  of  art  we  have 
already  spoken,  as  that  of  Magna  Graecia),  together  with  the  evidence 
derived  from  an  inspection  of  their  remaining  works,  have  led  admitted 
authorities  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Etruscan  remains  are  either  the 
productions  of  the  Greek  colonists  themselves,  or  of  those  who  received 
instruction  in  art  at  their  hands.  There  is,  however,  good  reason  to  suppose 
that  the  transplanted  art  found  a  soil  more  rapidly  propitious  than  that 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


3i 


from  whence  it  had  been  derived;  and  that  the  school  of  sculpture  in 
Etruria  had  early  arrived  at  a  degree  of  refinement  not  attained  by  Greece 
until  a  later  period.  The  Etruscan  gems  and  medals  of  that  period, 
which  have  come  down  to  us,  are  of  wonderful  beauty  for  so  remote  an 
age ;  but  the  most  numerous  class  of  these  remains  are  their  engraved 
bronzes,  or  sacrificial  vessels,  called  Paterae.  Of  the  ancient  statues  and 
relievos  which  have  been  discovered  in  Italy,  there  is  some  difficulty, 
from  this  relationship  and  identical  character  of  the  two  schools,  in 
separating  those  which  are  of  Etruscan  workmanship  from  those  which  may 
be  of  Greek  importation.  The  figures  of  the  Roman  kings  and  other 
illustrious  persons  of  early  times,  mentioned  by  Pliny  as  standing  in  the 
Capitol — together  with  the  terra-cotta  figure  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus — are 
supposed  to  have  been  from  the  schools  of  Etruria;  as  well  as  most  of 
the  other  works  of  sculpture  executed  for  the  early  Romans ;  *  whose 
acquaintance  with  Grecian  art  seems  to  have  been  very  limited  before 
the  time  of  the  Scipios.  The  arts  of  Etruria  flourished  in  her  twelve 
capitals  in  emulous  and  increasing  splendour,  until  her  once  extensive 
empire,  which  had  gradually  given  way  before  the  encroaching  power  of 
the  Romans,  was  finally  overthrown  by  that  people,  and  the  earliest  school 
of  art  established  in  Italy  was  destroyed,  480  years  subsequent  to  the 
building  of  Rome. 

As  early  as  the  thirteenth  century,  in  the  republican  cities  of  Italy, 
the  love  and  practice  of  the  fine  arts  had  been  advancing  with  the  progress 
and  sense  of  freedom.  The  Tuscan  spirit  of  elegance,  relieved  from  the 
imperial  chain  which  had  so  long  enthralled  it,  had  begun  to  revive ; 
and,  towards  the  close  of  that  century,  Pisa,  with  other  neighbouring 
cities  of  the  old  Etruria, — its  ancient  seats, — were  already,  once  more, 
distinguished  for  art.  The  founder  of  this  new  school  (the  first  of  restored 
sculpture  in  Italy),  or,  at  least,  the  sculptor  by  whose  name  it  is  earliest 


32 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


illustrated,  was  Nicolo  Pisano ;  and  it  may  be  observed,  for  another  proof 
of  the  influence  of  Greek  art  upon  every  subsequent  school,  that  he  and 
his  successors  formed  their  taste,  and  modelled  their  style,  after  the  spoils 
of  ancient  art  which  the  Pisans  had  brought  from  Sicily  and  Greece. 
From  Pisa,  the  principles  and  precepts  of  Nicolo  were  carried  to  Florence, 
by  his  grandson  and  pupil,  Andrea:  and  in  this  city, — the  future  Athens 
of  restored  art, — about  the  middle  of  the  next  century,  was  erected  the 
first  academy  of  design,  from  whose  bosom  issued  forth  sculptors  who 
spread  the  practice  of  the  art  over  the  whole  of  Italy,  and  even  made  their 
way  into  France,  Germany,  and,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to 
mention  more  particularly,  England  itself.  The  unparalleled  rapidity  with 
which  it  extended  itself,  within  a  period  (from  its  first  revival  to  its  final 
triumph  in  the  fifteenth  century)  so  short,  marks  the  difference  between  an 
already  perfected  art,  re-awakened  by  a  crowd  of  propitious  circumstances 
from  the  slumber  of  ages,  and  the  slow  and  laborious  march  of  the  same 
art,  from  infancy  to  its  similar  state  of  maturity,  in  its  native  Greece.  It 
is  less  our  business,  in  a  limited  sketch  like  this,  to  point  out  the  train  of 
moral  causes  which  aroused  and  bore  onward  the  spirit  of  intelligence,  in 
every  form  of  its  manifestation,  than  to  record  their  results  in  that  one 
which  is  our  subject.  But  we  may  just  mention,  as  one  of  the  accidental, 
aiding  the  moral,  influences,  that,  about  this  time,  or  shortly  afterwards, 
many  of  the  finest  fragments  of  ancient  art  were  recovered  from  the  oblivion 
in  which  they  had  lain  from  the  days  of  the  barbarian  or  religious  icono- 
clastes.  An  enumeration  was  made  in  the  year  1430,  by  desire  of  Eugenius 
IV.,  of  all  the  remains  of  former  magnificence  then  existing  in  Rome,  and 
amongst  them  were  found  only  five  statues, — which  may  give  some  notion 
of  the  number  subsequently  restored  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  or  dug 
out  of  ruins.  The  Laocoon  was  discovered  in  the  year  1506.  Amongst 
the  names  of  those  whom  we  find  contributing  to  the  progress  of  art, 
from  John  Pisano  (the  son  of  Nicolo)  to  Michael  Angelo,  we  may  mention 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


33 


the  illustrious  ones  of  Brunelleschi  and  Ghiberti  (to  the  latter  of  whom  it 
is  indebted  for  the  magnificent  bronze  gates  of  the  baptistry,  at  Florence, 
one  of  the  finest  works  of  all  modern  art,  and  to  which  has  been  given, 
from  an  enthusiastic  expression  of  Buonarotti's,  the  title  of  the  "  Gates  of 
Paradise"),  the  far  greater  one  of  Donatello  (the  most  illustrious  of  all  the 
Italian  predecessors  of  the  mighty  Florentine,  second,  in  the  whole  history 
of  that  era  of  revived  art,  to  him  alone, — and  of  whom  it  was  said,  in 
reference  to  the  Pythagorean  doctrine  of  transmigration,  that  "  either 
Michael  Angelo's  soul  energized  in  his  body,  or  his  in  Michael  Angelo's"), 
and  that  of  Dominic  Ghirlandaio,  less  for  the  sake  of  his  own  genius 
(which  was  displayed  more  in  painting  than  in  sculpture)  than  because  he 
was  the  master  of  Buonarotti,  and  shares  with  Bertoldo,  a  pupil  of  Donatello, 
the  proud  distinction  of  being  the  source  from  whence  that  matchless  artist 
derived  such  portion  of  his  art  as  was  not  direct  inspiration. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck,  at  once,  by  the  resemblance  which 
the  period  immediately  antecedent  to  the  labours  of  the  great  Florentine 
bears,  morally  and  politically,  to  that  which  preceded  the  advent  of  Phidias, 
— by  the  identical  condition  at  which  the  art  itself  had  arrived,  in  each 
case, — and  by  the  similar  style  adopted  by  the  two  great  masters — that 
of  the  Grand,  as  contrasted  with  that  of  the  Beautiful,  practised  by  an 
illustrious  successor  of  each,  Praxiteles  and  Canova.  In  each  case,  the 
spirit  of  freedom  had  evoked  a  host  of  intelligences;  long  strides  had  been 
made  in  moral,  intellectual,  and  political  knowledge ;  miracles  of  poetry 
had  been  achieved;  and  the  Pericles  of  the  one  period  has  his  parallel  in 
the  Medici  of  the  other.  In  each  case,  too,  the  art,  as  regarded  the  mere 
forms  of  imitation,  had  attained  perfection;  and  awaited  but  the  coming 
of  a  master-mind  to  invest  those  forms  with  a  living  intelligence,  and 
animate  them  with  the  spirit  of  immortality. 


34 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


The  long  and  crowded  annals  of  the  fine  arts  have  charge  of  no 
reputation  more  vast  and  indestructible  than  that  of  Michael  Angelo;  but 
his  crown  is  composed  of  a  wreath  culled  from  each  of  their  three  fields. 
— Sculptor,  painter,  architect, — the  energy  which  he  infused  into,  and  the 
influence  which  he  exercised  over,  each  of  these  departments, — together 
with  the  fact  that,  in  each,  his  genius  was  exercised  upon,  and  has  left 
perfected,  the  most  sublime  memorials  ever  undertaken  in  honour  of  our 
own  religion, — have  gained  for  him  a  name  surpassing  every  other  name 
in  art,  and  not  to  be  pronounced  without  a  feeling  of  solemn  veneration. 
The  sublimity  and  originality  of  his  genius,  as  well  as  the  unprecedented 
range  of  his  powers — his  profound  scientific  attainments,  and  bold  anatomical 
displays;   the   elaborate    complication    and    wonderful   grandeur   of  his 
grouping;  the  unequalled  rapidity  and  novel  character  of  his  execution;  and 
the  lofty  and  daring  subjects  to  whose  achievements  he  bent  this  unrivalled 
combination  of  great  and  singular  qualities — have  separated  and  set  him 
apart  from   all   other  artists,  and  placed   him,  as  regards  comparative 
criticism,  in  a  category  by  himself.     No  name  can  be  found  to  place  by 
the  side  of  his  who  built  the  Cupola,  sculptured  the  Moses,  and  painted 
the  Last  Judgment, — a  work  which,  taken  in  connection  with  the  paintings 
on  the  ceiling  of  the  Sistine  chapel,  with  which  it  forms  one  great  whole, 
has  no  competitor,  for  vastness  and  sublimity,  in  any  production  of  art, 
throughout  the  whole  extent  of  its  history,  in  ancient  or  modern  times. 
True  it  is,  that  the  noblest  efforts  of  this  overwhelming  genius  are  those 
which  he  executed  in  colours.    As  a  sculptor  alone,  and  merely  judged 
of  by  the  works  of  that  kind  which  he  has  left,  we  should,  in  many  of  the 
qualities  which  unite  to  form  the  perfection  of  that  art,  according  to  the 
recognized  canons,  be  compelled  to  assign  him  a  place  below  that  of 
Phid 

ias  > — although  no  work  of  sculpture,  ancient  or  modern,  approaches 
the  Moses  in  point  of  grandeur.  But  it  is  a  troubled  grandeur — distinct 
from  the  sweet  and  solemn  majesty  of  ancient  and  perfected  art.    In  fact, 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE.  35 

the  severe  and  simple  rules  which  long  experience  and  enlightened  study 
had  pointed  out  and  established,  as  best  adapted  to  the  limited  resources 
and  uniform  materials  of  the  ancient  and  dignified  art  of  sculpture,  were 
of  too  cold  and  passionless  a  character  to  suit  the  fiery  temperament  of 
this  wild  and  winged  genius;  and  the  grand  and  daring  effects  which  his 
fervent  imagination  sought,  were  to  be  reached  at  the  expense  of  any 
particular  canon  which  might  restrain  him  in  their  attainment.  The  result 
of  all  this  has  been,  that  he  has  left  behind  him  works  which  are  amongst 
the  miracles  of  genius ;  and  that  startle  the  mind  into  an  admiration  that 
leaves  it  but  little  inclination  to  question  the  legitimacy  of  the  means  by 
which  they  were  produced,  or  to  contend  for  the  unvarying  application  of 
the  principles,  in  whose  absence  results  so  great  and  impressive  have  been 
achieved.  But,  at  the  same  time,  by  setting  at  nought  the  safe  and  con- 
firmed rules  of  pure  and  established  practice,  and  teaching  (by  his  own 
bright  and  dazzling  example)  inferior  spirits  to  venture  upon  the  adoption 
of  conventional  and  fantastical  modes  in  their  place  (as  in  the  case  of 
his  Neapolitan  successor,  Bernini),  he  prepared  the  way  for  the  rapid 
deterioration,  and  final  and  certain  extinction,  in  other  hands,  of  that  art 
which  in  the  meantime,  and  in  his  own,  he  carried  to  the  highest  reach 
of  the  sublime ;  and  left  the  gigantic  monuments  of  his  own  mind, 
towering  along  the  edge  of  that  gulf  in  art  which  he  had  himself  dug  to 
furnish  forth  their  materials. 

As  the  most  striking  example  of  these  marvellous  works,  let  us  return 
to  the  Moses,  sculptured  by  Michael  Angelo  for  the  tomb  of  Pope  Julius 
the  second, — a  monument  which,  had  it  been  executed  after  the  sketch 
furnished  by  that  artist,  would  have  been  the  most  magnificent  work  of 
sculpture  which  modern  times  have  produced;  but  whose  composition  was 
afterwards  reduced  to  one-fourth  of  the  original  design,  and  whose  figures 
were  executed  by  inferior  sculptors,  with  the  single  and  stupendous  exception 


36 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


of  the  Moses  itself.  About  this  wonderful  statue  there  is  a  sublimity 
not  to  be  penetrated.  It  cannot  be  looked  at  steadily.  We  involuntarily 
think  of  Moses,  as  he  came  down  from  the  mount.  We  feel  that  we  are 
gazing  on  one  invested  with  a  portion  of  the  awful  attributes  of  the  dread 
Being  with  whom  he  is  permitted  to  converse ;  and  cannot,  for  an  instant, 
think  of  him  as  of  a  man  fashioned  like  unto,  and  having  sympathies 
with,  ourselves.  The  idea  is  present  of  something  beyond  a  human  leader 
or  law-giver.  The  figure  seems  filled  and  expanded  with  the  inspiration 
of  prophecy.  His  nature  seems  to  have  grown  beyond  mortality  beneath 
the  influence  of  its  awful  communications.  No  mortal  hand  had  dared  to 
try  such  a  subject  but  his  own;  and  no  other  hand  of  mortal  could  have 
succeeded.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  gods  whom  the  heathens 
sculptured  were  the  subjects  of  a  somewhat  familiar  intercourse  with 
mankind ;  and  invested  with  none  of  those  unimaginable  attributes  which 
forbid  all  approach,  even  in  thought.  The  Jupiter,  at  Elis,  as  a  work  of 
mere  power, — as  an  effort  of  the  imagination,— will  admit  of  no  comparison 
with  the  Moses.  For  effect  produced,  the  world  has  nothing  like  it.  The 
sculptor  must  have  been  in  a  state  of  mind,  when  he  worked  upon  it, 
too  highly  excited  to  think  about  the  canons  of  his  art, — or  care  for  them, 
if  he  had.  True  it  is,  that  the  superhuman  effect  is  obtained  by  means, 
though  different,  yet  strictly  as  far  from  being  in  accordance  with  those 
rigid  canons,  as  are  the  golden  hair  and  jewelled  eyes  of  the  Elian  Jove. 
Yet,  scarcely  to  preserve  those  rules  from  utter  oblivion, — and,  certainly, 
not  for  the  sake  of  securing  their  application  in  the  case  before  us, — 
would  the  world  consent  to  part  with  this  great  and  matchless  monument. 

But  we  must  not  delay  ourselves  over  an  examination  or  description 
of  works  so  well  known  as  those  of  Michael  Angelo.  The  productions 
of  his  chisel  are  few  in  number,  and  for  the  most  part  unfinished;  for 
his  unwearied  industry  exhibited  itself  in  the  multitude  and  variety  of  the 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


37 


conceptions  which  it  was  called  on  to  express,  while  his  restless  and 
creative  spirit  would  not  pause  upon  the  slow  labour  of  perfecting  its 
own  rapid  designs.  Amongst  the  finest  of  his  sculptured  works  are  the 
recumbent  figures  expressive  of  Daybreak  and  Night,  in  the  monument 
of  Julian  di  Medici,  in  the  Medici  Chapel,  at  Florence;  and  the  group 
of  the  Madonna,  with  the  dead  Christ  on  her  knees,  in  St.  Peter's,  at  Rome. 

With  the  name  of  Michael  Angelo  our  task,  in  these  introductory 
remarks,  is  drawing  to  a  close.  His  death  was  followed  by  the  rapid 
decay  of  the  last  great  school  of  sculpture,  previous  to  those  of  the  age 
which  had  its  direct  influence  on  the  American  school.  Over  the  expiring 
efforts  of  that  school  our  limits  do  not  permit — nor  does  their  dignity 
require — that  we  should  pause.  It  is  little  to  be  wondered  at,  that  a 
mind  of  so  overpowering  an  order  should  have  left  its  impression  on  the 
greatest  part  of  the  century  which  followed  him ;  and  that  every  sculptor 
for  the  fifty  years  succeeding  his  death  should  be  a  copyist  of  his  style. 
Accordingly,  we  find  that  style,  within  a  very  short  period  after  his  decease, 
extended  by  his  scholars  and  imitators  into  the  various  cities  of  Italy; 
and  transported  into  France  by  Rustici,  the  master  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci, 
and  by  John  of  Bologna,  the  most  eminent  of  all  the  pupils  of  Buonarotti, 
and  the  sculptor  who,  after  his  death,  became  the  leading  master  of  his 
art  in  Europe.  Among  the  most  distinguished  of  the  contemporaries  and 
survivors  of  Michael  Angelo,  must  be  mentioned  the  name  of  Bandinelli ; 
and  having  found  room  for  that  of  Benvenuto  Cellini,  who  united  the 
professions  of  a  goldsmith  and  sculptor  in  metals,  we  must  take  leave  of 
the  Florentine  school,  which  gradually  languished,  and,  towards  the  begin- 
ning of  the  seventeenth  century,  finally  became  extinct. 

After  the  decay  of  the  great  school  of  Tuscany,  from  a  crowd  of 
obscure  names  we  single  the  more  illustrious  one  of  Bernini  (to  which  we 


38 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


have  already  alluded),  who,  with  great  talent  and  wonderful  fancy,  departed 
from  all  the  rules  of  severe  and  simple  taste,  which  had  been  established 
as  the  standards  of  excellence  in  his  art,  in  an  attempt  to  imitate  Michael 
Angelo,  by  the  introduction  of  a  school  of  his  own ;  and  having  been 
originally  himself  a  painter,  threw  away  the  high  fame  which  he  had  all 
the  qualities,  except  judgment,  for  attaining,  by  an  absurd  and  impracticable 
endeavour  to  embody,  in  sculpture,  the  style  of  Correggio's  painting.  His 
followers  were  Rusconi,  Algardi,  Moco,  &c. ;  and,  in  their  hands,  the  art 
continued  to  deteriorate  and  decay;  till,  finally,  for  want  of  that  encourage- 
ment which  it  had  ceased  to  deserve,  it  fell  into  a  lethargy  during  great 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century;  from  whence  it  was  only  to  be  re-awakened 
by  a  mind  wise  enough  to  go  back  to  the  first  principles  of  nature, — 
instructed  enough  to  bring  into  comparison  with,  and  test  by  them,  the 
-  various  principles  which  had  been  offered  as  the  standards  of  art, — and 
with  taste  and  judgment  sufficient  to  aid  him  in  his  selection  from  both. 
And  such  a  one  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  produced  in — Canova. 

But,  at  this  point,  our  task  of  tracing  the  progress  of  the  art  down  to 
the  time  at  which  its  past  history  exerts  an  influence  on  the  American 
sculptors  terminates,  and  with  a  rapid  sketch  of  the  little  that  had  been 
done  in  sculpture  in  the  other  countries  of  continental  Europe  down  to  the 
formation  of  their  modern  schools,  and  a  hasty  review  of  its  progress  in 
England  to  the  same  period,  we  must  bring  these  introductory  remarks 
to  a  close. 

In  France,  from  its  proximity  to  Italy,  as  well  as  from  the  intercourse 
maintained  between  its  early  kings  and  the  Greek  emperors,  a  taste  for 
fine  art  had  at  all  times  been  kept  alive.  In  the  reign  of  .Francis  I.,  a 
school,  similar  to  the  improved  one  of  Italy,  was  founded  by  Leonardo  da 
Vinci,  Benvenuto  Cellini,  and  Primaticcio.    The  native  sculptors  of  eminence 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


39 


whom  it  shortly  produced  were  Goujon,  Pilon,  and  Cousin, — the  first  of 
whom  executed  the  works  on  the  Fountain  of  the  Innocents,  at  Paris. 
Jacques  D'Angouleme  was  contemporary  with  Michael  Angelo.  Towards 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  John  of  Bologna,  as  we  have  already 
mentioned,  established  the  principles  of  his  great  master  in  France ;  and 
Girardon  and  Puget  perpetuated  them  to  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.  Sarasin, 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  sculptors  of  France,  executed  the  Caryatides 
of  the  Louvre ;  and  from  this  time,  down  to  the  Revolution,  we  have  the 
names  of  Les  Gros,  Theodon,  Le  Peintre,  Desjardins,  Vaucleve,  Couston, 
Bouchardon,  and  Pigal. 

In  Germany,  before  the  seventeenth  century,  we  find  no  sculptors 
worthy  of  the  name,  and  no  works  deserving  of  notice.  Subsequent  to 
that  period,  we  have  the  names  of  Rauchmiiller,  in  Vienna;  Leigebe,  in 
Silesia ;  Millich,  Barthel,  and  others,  at  Berlin ;  and  Alexander  Collins,  at 
Mechlin, — whose  monument  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  in  the  Church 
of  St.  Anthony,  presents  a  striking  and  magnificent  example  of  sepulchral 
sculpture.  In  that  country  a  modern  school  of  art  has  latterly  arisen, 
which  bids  fair  to  extend  its  reputation  in  the  department  of  sculpture, 
and  has  already  produced  works  which  will  suffer  little  by  comparison 
anywhere,  in  immediate  connection  with  all  but  the  best  of  modern  times. 

In  Spain,  as  in  France,  the  art  of  sculpture  was  derived  from  Italy. 
Their  great  sculptor,  Paul  de  Cespides,  issued  from  a  school  of  art 
established  in  that  country  by  a  pupil  of  Michael  Angelo. 

England  is  rich  in  examples  of  ancient  sculpture  from  a  very  early 
period ;  but  wearing,  for  the  most  part,  traces  of  a  foreign  origin,  and 
having  the  impression  to  that  effect — which  is  derived  from  the  works 
themselves — frequently  confirmed  by  such  evidence  as  exists.    A  minute 


40 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


and  critical  inquiry  into  the  abundant  and  interesting  remains  of  this  art, 
which  embellish  the  cathedrals  and  churches  of  England,  would  be  out 
of  place  and  proportion  in  this  general  view  of  sculpture, — in  which  that 
of  Britain,  up  to  a  recent  period,  forms  but  an  unimportant,  and  not  very 
distinct  or  original  episode.  For  particulars  of  great  interest  connected 
with  these  old  English  sculptures,  we  refer  our  readers  to  the  view  of  that 
subject  taken  by  Professor  Flaxman,  in  his  lecture  delivered  from  the  chair 
of  the  Royal  Academy;  and  for  examples  of  the  same,  to  the  valuable 
publications  of  Mr.  Britton.  For  ourselves,  we  must  skim  over  the  surface 
to  a  conclusion. 

What  kind  of  native  sculpture  may  have  existed  amongst  the  early 
Britons,  if  any,  there  are  no  remains  to  show;  the  remotest  examples  of 
this  art  that  have  come  down  to  us  being  (according  to  Flaxman)  some 
rude  coins,  apparently  imitations  of  the  Tyrian  or  Carthaginian,  with  which 
countries  they  had  commercial  intercourse.  That  they  subsequently  imitated 
the  arts  which  they  had  learnt  from  their  Roman  conquerors,  there  is  abundant 
evidence  to  prove,  both  from  the  works  of  historians,  and  from  a  vast  body 
of  remains  discovered  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom, — notwithstanding 
the  general  destruction  of  the  vestiges  of  Roman  grandeur  by  the  Saxons 
who  succeeded  them.  What  traces  still  remain  of  the  architecture  and 
sculpture  of  these  Saxons  themselves  are,  however,  rude  and  barbarous 
imitations  of  the  very  works  which  they  destroyed ;  and  the  same  are  also 
imitated  in  the  Norman  productions,  but  with  more  skill.  It  was  imme- 
diately after  the  Norman  conquest  that  figures  of  the  deceased  were  first 
carved  in  bas-relief  on  their  gravestones,  examples  of  which  remain  in 
Westminster  Abbey  and  Worcester  Cathedral.  From  the  return  of  the 
Crusaders  down  to  the  age  of  Henry  III.,  sculpture  increased  in  popularity 
and  consequent  excellence ;  and  the  reign  of  that  monarch  exhibited 
examples  not  undeserving  of  praise  even  in  the  present  day, — allowance 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


4> 


being  made  for  the  imperfect  lights  under  which  they  were  produced.  An 
instance  of  this  may  be  found  in  Wells  Cathedral,  which  Bishop  Joceline 
rebuilt  before  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  magnificent  stone 
crosses  erected,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  on  the  spots  where  the  body 
of  his  queen,  Eleanor,  rested  on  its  journey  to  its  tomb  in  Westminster 
Abbey  (and  of  which  three  still  remain),  and  the  tomb  and  statue  of  Henry 
III.,  in  the  same  place  (together  with  many  other  works  of  this,  or  later 
date),  bear  evident  traits  of  the  school  of  Pisano;  and  are  generally 
supposed  to  have  been  executed  by  some  of  those  numerous  travelling 
scholars,  whom  we  have  already  mentioned  as  having  spread  the  principles 
of  that  school  over  the  whole  of  Italy,  and  finally  extended  their  wanderings 
and  labours  over  the  west  of  Europe,  until  they  reached  Great  Britain. 
In  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  the  encouragement  given  to  the  arts  was 
general ;  and  the  richness,  novelty,  and  beauty  of  the  sculptures  of  that 
day  may  be  seen  in  York  and  Gloucester  Cathedrals,  as  well  as  in  many 
other  churches  and  monuments.  There  is  reason  to  believe,  however, 
that  these  also  were  the  work  of  Italians.  But  it  is  said  that  the  artists 
employed  by  Edward  III.,  in  his  collegiate  church  of  St.  Stephen  (now  the 
House  of  Commons),  were  for  the  most  part  Englishmen.  The  tomb  of 
Henry  VII.,  in  the  Lady  Chapel  of  Westminster  Abbey,  is  the  work  of 
Torrigiano,  an  Italian ;  but  Flaxman  is  of  opinion — from  a  variety  of 
interesting  circumstances  relating  to  it,  which  are  mentioned  by  Britton, 
in  his  Architectural  Antiquities,  and  from  other  evidence — that  Torrigiano 
was  concerned  in  the  tomb  and  statues  alone,  and  not  in  the  building 
which  contains  them,  or  the  remaining  statues  with  which  it  is  embellished. 
The  chapel  and  its  sculptures,  he  thinks,  were  probably  native  productions. 
Henry  VIII.,  in  the  early  part  of  his  reign,  had  for  his  Master  of  Works 
an  Italian,  John  of  Padua,  a  scholar  of  Michael  Angelo ;  but,  towards  the 
close  of  his  reign,  and  throughout  that  of  Edward  VI.,  the  iconoclastic 
spirit  was  let  loose  in  England,  and   many  of  the  noblest  and  most 


42 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


magnificent  efforts  of  British  art  perished.  It  is  probably  owing  only  to 
their  great  number,  which  baffled  the  destroyer,  that  so  many  of  them  are 
still  left  to  the  present  day.  This  spirit  of  destruction  continued  to  rage, 
with  more  or  less  violence,  down  to  the  period  of  the  civil  wars;  when 
its  furious  orgies  desecrated  most  of  the  temples  in  the  island,  and  finally 
extinguished  the  genius  of  liberal  art  amongst  her  sons.  When,  therefore, 
on  the  Restoration,  the  ravages  of  this  demon  of  devastation  had  to  be 
replaced,  she  was  compelled  again  to  visit  the  land  of  the  foreigner  for 
that  proficiency  in  art  which  her  own  soil  could  not  furnish.  During  this 
abasement  of  native  sculpture,  we  find  the  names  of  three  Englishmen — 
Christmas,  Stone,  and  Bird ;  but  their  labours  only  tend  to  make  conspicu- 
ous the  wretched  condition  to  which  the  art  was  reduced.  Steevens,  De 
Vere,  Caius  Cibber  (the  sculptor  of  the  Kings  at  the  old  Royal  Exchange, 
the  bas-relief  on  the  Monument  of  London,  and  the  celebrated  figures 
of  Melancholy  and  Madness  in  the  Hall  of  Bedlam),  Scheemacher,  Roubiliac, 
Carlini,  Locatelli,  Rysbrack, — nearly  all  the  sculptors,  in  fact,  who  flourished 
in  England  during  the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century, — were 
foreigners. 

Thus,  not  until  towards  the  conclusion  of  the  last  century,  can  there 
properly  be  said  to  have  existed  a  school  of  British  Sculpture;  and  she, 
like  the  rest  of  Europe,  was  indebted — both  under  the  emperors,  and  at 
the  period  of  the  restored  arts — for  the  treasures  of  that  kind  with  which 
she  is  enriched,  to  Greek  art,  passing  through  Roman  hands,  and  modified 
by  Roman  forms.  The  British  school  may  be  considered  as  commencing 
with  Banks  (for  Wilton  was  educated  abroad),  whose  works  have  eclipsed 
nearly  all  his  continental  contemporaries,  as  they  have  since  been  far 
surpassed.  We  have  had  occasion  to  notice  that,  in  many  countries 
of  Europe  besides  Italy,  there  is  just  now  an  awakened  and  improving 
spirit   in   this  walk  of  art,  which  promises  well   for  the  extension  and 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


43 


perpetuation  of  right  principles;  and,  in  our  enumeration,  Denmark  must 
not  lie  omitted,  for  the  sake-  of  her  great  son  Thorwaldsen,  although  he 
was  an  adopted  citizen  of  Rome. 

The  rapid  sketch,  which  we  must  now  close,  has  brought  down  the 
history  of  the  art,  in  a  general  and  cursory  way  on  all  sides,  to  the  time 
of  the  American  school  of  sculpture,  with  a  view  to  whose  promotion, 
and  to  make  the  public  better  acquainted  with  which,  these  illustrations 
have  been  undertaken.  We  are  anxious  that  the  publication  and  encour- 
agement of  modern,  and  above  all  of  native  art,  should,  at  least,  be 
concurrent  and  co-extensive  with  the  publication  and  encouragement 
bestowed  upon  that  of  the  ancient  and  the  foreigner;  and  that  the  general 
public  should  have  an  acquaintance  with  the  beautiful  specimens  of 
sculpture  which  enrich  and  exalt  our  own  day  and  land,  at  least  equal  to 
their  knowledge  of  those  immortal  works  which  they  replace,  or  by  the 
side  of  which,  in  many  cases,  they  may  boldly  challenge  to  stand.  A 
school  of  sculpture  has  at  length,  as  we  have  observed,  and  with  almost 
unexampled  rapidity,  grown  up  in  America, — based  upon  the  purest  prin- 
ciples of  the  best  days  of  Grecian  art,  and  in  harmony  with  the  feelings 
and  habits  of  our  land.  In  the  service  of  religion  this  art  never  was  used 
amongst  us,  from  a  feeling  (whether  right  or  wrong)  that  such  application 
of  its  resources  savours  of  idolatry,  or  may  lead  to  it;  or,  perhaps,  from 
a  belief  (which  is  certainly  right)  that  subjects  of  that  nature  are  of  too 
sacred  a  character  for  a  mode  of  illustration  so  palpable  and  substantial 
as  sculpture.  But,  in  the  service  of  the  tomb — in  the  embellishment  of 
our  homes — in  the  illustration  of  our  affections — in  the  perpetuation  of  what 
is  great  and  tutelary  amongst  us — it  has  assumed  an  aspect  and  a  tone 
well  suited  to  add  to  the  sources  of  our  intellectual  enjoyment  at  home, 
and  to  elevate  the  national  character  abroad.  Sculptors  have  arisen  amongst 
ourselves,  and  in  our  own  day,  second  only  to  the  very  greatest  masters  of 


44 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


the  art  in  all  time ;  and  works  have  been  produced,  in  its  various  kinds, 
which  we  dare  almost  place  beside  their  best  in  the  same.  At  the  present 
moment,  no  school  of  sculpture  in  Europe  can  claim  to  take  the  lead  of 
that  of  America;  or  promises,  with  due  encouragement  to  this  latter,  so 
fair  for  progressive  excellence.  Once  more,  then,  we  call  upon  that  part 
of  the  public  to  whom  the  elegant  and  intellectual  arts  are  a  solace  and 
a  joy, — again  we  demand  of  their  wealthy  patrons  to  extend  the  cheering 
influence  of  their  encouragement,  in  every  mode  of  its  exhibition  which 
may  be  in  their  power,  to  the  sculptures  of  their  native  land ;  to  do  what 
in  them  severally  lies  for  the  promotion  of  an  art  adapted,  in  a  language 
so  delightful,  to  enforce  the  lessons  of  wisdom  and  virtue,  and -embalm 
and  utter  the  records  of  the  heart. 


TIB  GREEK  SLATE. 


EN&RAVED  BYVE07IE  FROM  THE  STATUE 
INMAKBLE  BYHTRAM  POWERS  . 


CHAPTER  II. 


POIVERS  AND  GREENOUGH 


IRAM  POWERS  was  the  first  American  sculptor  who  achieved 
a  European  reputation,  and  a  European  reputation  in  1843, 
when  he  finished  his  Greek  Slave,  meant  much  more  for  an 
American  than  it  means  to-day.  We  have  not  yet  got  beyond  the  time 
when  the  cordial  endorsement  of  Paris  or  London  is  worth  very  much  to 
an  American  artist  or  author,  but  we  certainly  have  got  beyond  the  time 
when  such  endorsement  is  necessary  in  order  to  obtain  for  an  American 
artist  or  author  the  cordial  appreciation,  hearty  commendation  and  liberal 
patronage  of  his  own  countrymen.  It  was  the  special  good  fortune  of 
Mr.  Powers  that,  at  a  most  opportune  moment,  he  was  able  to  rivet  the 
attention  of  European,  and  particularly  of  English  connoisseurs,  with  a 
purely  ideal  work,  full  of  grace,  tenderness  and  pathos,  which  was  in  every 
way  worthy  of  himself  and  of  his  country.  The  Greek  Slave  opened  the 
eyes  of  European  art  lovers  and  art  critics  to  the  fact  that  there  was  a 
rising  school  of  American  sculptors,  which  asked  nothing  of  Europe  except 
the  instruction  which  its  great  galleries,  filled  with  the  fragmentary  re- 
mains of  antique  art,  alone  could  give,  and  which  yielded  nothing  to 
modern  European  art  in  invention,  ideality  or  technical  skill. 

45 


46 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


Powers'  Greek  Slave  was  completed  at  a  fortunate  time.  The 
woes  of  the  Greeks  and  the  liberation  of  Greece  from  the  Turkish  yoke 
were  subjects  concerning  which  enlightened  people,  both  in  Europe  and 
America,  thought  deeply — and  no  theme  that  the  young  American  sculptor 
might  have  chosen  for  his  first  important  ideal  work  could  have  so  touched 
popular  sympathies  as  the  singularly  happy  one  he  did  choose.  He 
addressed  a  public  that  was  ready  to  admire  and  to  praise,  and  that  did 
admire  and  praise  without  stint.  The  Greek  Slave  was  a  famous  statue 
before  the  opening  of  the  great  International  Exhibition  of  1851  in  London; 
at  that  exhibition  it  was  the  one  work  of  art  by  an  American  that  did 
credit  to  America.  To  say  that  it  well  held  its  own  with  the  contributions 
of  European  sculptors,  would  be  to  do  it  scant  justice.  In  some  of  the 
highest  artistic  qualities  it  was  not  surpassed  by  any  piece  of  sculpture 
in  the  Exhibition,  while  in  many  other  high  qualities  it  surpassed  any 
of  them.  The  critics  praised  it  and  accepted  it  as  a  promise  of  greater 
things  to  come,  not  only  from  the  same  hand,  but  from  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Powers'  countrymen;  English  wealth  gave  appreciation  a  substantial 
value  to  the  artist  by  purchasing  it;  the  English  public  admired  it  and 
frankly  said  that  it  did;  and  the  greatest  of  English  female  poets  wrote 
a  sonnet  on  it.  When  Mrs.  Browning  sincerely  and  heartily  admired 
anything  it  was  not  her  custom  to  express  her  admiration  in  vain  and 
halting  words.  There  was  that  in  Hiram  Powers'  Greek  slave  which 
touched  her  deeper  than  her  mere  artistic  sympathies.  Gazing  at  this 
statue,  her  thoughts  flew  from  Greece  to  the  native  land  of  the  artist, 
and  the  marble  chains  on  those  fair  marble  hands  seemed  to  be  a  reproach 
on  the  artist's  countrymen.  She  felt  that  Mr.  Powers  had  given  her  his 
best,  and  had  also  given  her  an  opportunity  to  do  a  little  preaching,  and 
so  she  gave  him  her  best  in  the  shape  of  the  following  sonnet — a  sonnet 
which  no  poet  but  Mrs.  Browning  could  have  written: — 


POWERS  AND   ORE  EN  OUC II. 


47 


"They  say  Ideal  beauty  cannot  enter 
The  house  of  anguish.     On  the  threshold  stands 
An  alien  Image,  with  cnshacklcd  hands, 
Called  the  Greek  Slave!  as  if  the  artist  meant  her 
(That  passionless  perfection  which  he  lent  her, 
Shadowed,  not  darkened,  where  the  sill  expands) 
To  so  confront  man's  crimes,  in  different  lands, 
With  man's  ideal  sense.     Pierce  to  the  centre, 
Art's  fiery-finger ! — and  break  up  ere  long 
The  serfdom  of  this  world!  appeal,  fair  stone, 
From  God's  pure  heights  of  beauty  against  man's  wrong! 
Catch  up  in  thy  divine  face,  not  alone 
East  griefs,  but  West, — and  strike  and  shame  the  strong, 
By  thunders  of  white  silence  overthrown." 

The  strong  genius  of  Mrs.  Browning  was  in  one  of  its  greatly  grotesque 
moods  when  she  wrote  that.  "Thunders  of  white  silence  " — what  a  figure! 
It  ought  to  have  been  worth  more  to  the  heart  and  brain  of  Powers  than 
all  of  the  applause  of  the  populace,  or  than  all  of  the  gold  which  his 
statue  brought  him. 

The  Greek  Slave  was  Powers'  first  ideal  work,  or  at  least  the  first 
with  which  he  was  willing  to  make  an  appeal  for  recognition  to  the  public. 
Whether  the  fame  which  it  won  for  him  cramped  his  genius  instead  of 
expanding  it,  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  it  is  certain  that  he  never 
surpassed,  and  never  equalled  it  by  any  subsequent  performance.  His 
California,  his  Fisher  Boy,  his  Eve  Disconsolate,  and  his  Last  of  the  Tribe 
are  all  works  of  considerable  excellence,  but  they  are  all  inferior  to  the 
Greek  Slave  in  that  nameless  something  which  raises  a  work  of  art  far 
above  the  level  of  the  commonplace.  The  Greek  Slave  was  sculptured 
nearly  half  a  century  ago,  and  it  now  more  than  justifies  its  original 
reputation,  when  placed  in  comparison  with  the  many  ideal  statues  that 


48 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


have  been  made  by  men  who  have  risen  to  fame  since  Powers  startled 
Europe  and  America  with  this  masterpiece.  Not  long  ago  we  saw  the 
replica  of  this  statue  which  was  purchased  many  years  ago  by  Mr. 
W.  W.  Corcoran,  and  which  is  now  in  the  Corcoran  Art  Gallery  in 
Washington,  and  early  impressions  of  it  were  fully  confirmed.  There 
was,  it  is  true,  feeble  modelling  in  parts,  indicative  of  crude  and 
imperfect  training,  and  of  a  lack  of  knowledge  on  the  artist's  part  of  some 
of  the  refinement  of  the  human  form;  but  after  all  deductions  were 
made,  the  purity,  expressiveness,  and  truly  ideal  grace  of  the  statue 
remained  to  testify  that  the  one-time  enthusiastic  admiration  of  Europe 
and  America  was  not  misapplied  or  wasted  on  a  mere  piece  of  artistic 
trumpery. 

It  has  been  claimed  for  Powers  by  some  of  the  least  judicious  of 
his  admirers,  that,  when  he  went  to  Italy,  his  ideas  were  fixed,  and  too 
firmly  fixed,  for  him  to  be  influenced  in  any  material  degree  by  the  great 
works  of  the  classic  and  renaissance  periods  which  he  found  there,  and 
which,  for  the  first  time,  he  was  afforded  an  opportunity  of  studying.  It 
has  also  been  claimed  that  in  nature,  rather  than  in  classic  art,  did  he 
obtain  the  inspiration  for  his  ideal  statues.  These  claims  are  distinctly 
unfounded,  and  they  have  certainly  been  made  on  the  strength  of  the 
artist's  pretensions,  rather  than  on  the  strength  of  a  critical  study  of  his 
performances.  Powers  was  quite  in  the  habit  of  speaking  in  a  very  dogmatic 
way  concerning  himself,  his  work  and  his  theories,  and  as  he  undoubtedly 
believed  all  that  he  said,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  perhaps,  that  he 
should  have  persuaded  others  to  coincide  with  him  in  his  beliefs.  Powers, 
however,  when  he  went  to  Italy  had  absolutely  no  art  training  worth 
speaking  of — for  the  wax-works  and  the  few  busts  which  he  modelled  before 
crossing  the  ocean,  can  scarcely  be  considered  as  having  initiated  him  into 
the  mysteries  of  the  alphabet  of  his  art.    He  was  profoundly  ignorant  of 


POWERS  AND    ( /  A'  E  EN  O  U  G  H . 


49 


the  human  figure  as  a  whole  at  the  outset  of  his  artistic  career,  and  although 
he  used  living  models  in  his  studio,  he  certainly  gained  most  of  his 
knowledge  of  the  figure  from  a  study  of  the  antiques.  It  was  most  creditable 
to  him,  that,  with  his  very  imperfect  training,  he  was  able  to  accomplish 
what  he  did,  and  to  claim  for  him  more  than  he  was  entitled  to,  is  to 
injure,  rather  than  to  advance  his  fame.  His  full  length  figures  are  lacking 
in  just  those  very  qualities  that  would  certainly  mark  them,  had  the  artist 
been  a  close,  careful  and  thorough  student  of  nature,  while  they  are  marked 
by  the  very  qualities  that  will  always  be  found  in  the  works  of  a  man  of 
real  talent  who  bases  his  study  on  the  antique.  When  the  Greek  Slave 
was  first  exhibited  there  were,  of  course,  plenty  of  disparagements  uttered 
against  it.  The  most  important  of  these — or  what  would  have  been  the 
most  important,  had  there  been  any  truth  in  it — was  that  it  was  a  mere 
imitation  of  the  Venus  de  Medicis.  Except  in  the  matter  of  the  position 
of  one  of  the  hands  of  the  Greek  Slave,  there  was  no  foundation  whatever 
for  this  accusation ;  and  when  we  call  to  mind  that  the  arms  of  the  Venus 
de  Medicis  are  modern  restorations,  and  are  so  palpably  inferior  to  the 
antique  portions  of  the  statue  that  no  artist  of  judgment  and  taste  would 
think  of  copying  them,  the  accusation  is  reduced  to  an  absurdity.  Not 
only  are  the  motives  of  the  two  statues  totally  different,  but,  except  that 
they  both  represent  young  and  beautiful  women,  and  that  they  are  both 
idealizations  of  the  female  form,  they  have  no  essential  points  of  resemblance. 
It  is  nevertheless  true  that  the  Greek  Slave  is  an  idealization  in  the  classic 
rather  than  in  the  renaissance  or  modern  sense.  For  its  exemplars  we 
must  look  to  the  remains  of  Greek  art,  and  not  to  nature  or  the  performances 
of  artists  of  the  modern  school,  of  which  Michael  Angelo  was  the  father. 
While  this  statue,  however,  is  undoubtedly  an  attempt  in  the  classic  style 
— whether  Powers  intended  it  to  be  so  or  not — it  is  exceedingly  interesting 
to  note  that  the  head  is  unmistakably  American  in  its  type.  Consciously 
or  unconsciously  Powers  refused  to  go  to  either  ancient  or  modern  Greece 


53  AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 

for  the  head  of  his  ideal  Greek  Slave,  but  ehose  a  type  with  which  he 
was  much  more  abundantly  familiar. 

The  production  of  The  Greek  Slave  marked  the  turning-point  of 
Powers'  fortunes.  That  statue  brought  him  not  only  fame,  but,  what  was 
of  quite  as  much  importance  to  a  struggling  artist  in  a  foreign  land, 
pecuniary  independence,  if  not  wealth.  Orders  poured  in  upon  him,  and 
in  a  comparatively  short  space  of  time  he  was  able  to  charge  his  own 
prices,  and  to  decline  work  for  which  he  had  no  inclination.  It  became 
the  fashion  with  wealthy  Europeans  and  Americans  to  have  their  busts 
done  by  Powers,  and  the  number  of  works  of  this  class  which  were  turned 
out  from  his  studio  must  have  been  enormous.  It  is  undoubtedly  upon 
his  busts  that  his  fame  as  a  sculptor  will  chiefly  rest.  As  has  been  before 
stated,  he  never  surpassed  nor  equalled  the  Greek  Slave  in  any  ideal  figure 
— full-length  figure,  we  mean,  for  his  bust  of  Proserpine  is  a  very  charming 
work,  which  is  quite  up  to  the  standard  of  the  Greek  Slave — but  some 
of  his  portrait  busts  are  masterly,  and  have  probably  been  surpassed  by 
few  similar  performances  of  later  American  sculptors. 

In  referring  to  Powers  as  the  first  American  sculptor  who  was  successful 
in  gaining  a  European  reputation,  it  would  be  unjust  to  the  memory  and 
fame  of  a  man  to  whom  he  undoubtedly  owed  much,  and  who  was  an 
artist  of  broader  views,  more  liberal  culture,  and  finer  genius,  to  leave 
the  impression  on  the  mind  of  the  reader  that  he  ought  to  be  considered 
as  the  father  of  the  American  school  of  sculpture.  To  Horatio  Greenough, 
who  had  been  residing  for  some  time  in  Italy  when  Powers  went  there, 
Powers  was  indebted  for  a  great  deal  more  than  the  mere  sympathies, 
advice  and  social  courtesies,  which  one  American  artist  of  high  attainment, 
and  a  large-heartedness  of  disposition  that  harbored  no  thought  of  any 
but   the   most   honourable   rivalry,   would   naturally  extend   to  a  fellow- 


POWERS  AND    G  RE  EN  O  U  GH. 


51 


countryman  on  meeting  him  in  a  strange  land.  Greenough,  when  Powers 
made  his  acquaintance,  if  he  did  not  have  the  thorough  training  as  an 
artist  which  it  is  considered  indispensable  that  an  artist  in  our  day  should 
have,  at  least  did  have  some  training — and  that  very  good  of  its  kind — 
while  Powers,  beyond  a  moderate  amount  of  skill  in  manipulating  clay 
and  wax,  had  absolutely  none  at  all  that  was  of  any  real  value  to  him. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Greenough's  assistance  in  directing  his  studies, 
and  in  correcting  his  work,  was  of  the  greatest  value  to  Powers,  and 
that  the  kindly  interest  which  Greenough  took  in  him  and  his  affairs  had 
a  most  potent  influence  in  shaping  his  future  career,  and  in  promoting 
his  pecuniary  as  well  as  his  financial  success.  Greenough,  if  less  fortunate 
than  Powers  in  achieving  a  European  reputation  at  a  time  when  a 
European  reputation  was  particularly  well  worth  having,  was  more  fortunate 
than  he  in  obtaining  from  the  United  States  government  two  very  important 
commissions.  He  was  especially  fortunate  in  this,  for,  while  most  of 
Powers'  works  are  hidden  from  the  public  in  private  collections,  and  are 
only  known  through  the  medium  of  engravings  and  photographs, 
Greenough's  master-pieces  belong  to  the  nation,  and  are  so  placed  that 
it  is  possible  for  every  one  to  study  and  enjoy  them.  These  two  works 
are  the  statue  of  Washington,  in  the  open  space  facing  the  east  front 
of  the  National  Capitol,  and  the  imposing  group  entitled  The  Rescue 
which  is  one  of  the  adornments  of  the  east  front  of  that  noble  building. 

The  fame  of  these  two  exceedingly  fine  performances  is  increasing 
with  the  increase  of  artistic  culture  in  the  United  States,  but  it  is  a  fact, 
that  they  never  have  as  yet  been  appreciated  in  accordance  with  their  great 
deserts  by  the  mass  of  the  artist's  countrymen.  For  many  years,  indeed, 
the  Washington  was  an  object  of  ridicule  by  the  ignorant  and  unthinking, 
who  were  incapable  of  understanding  the  poetical  aim  of  the  artist,  and 
we  presume  that  the  people  who  undertake  to  show  strangers  the  "  sights " 


52 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


of  the  city  of  Washington  are  still,  as  they  were  many  years  ago,  in  the 
habit  of  cracking  a  very  ancient  and  a  very  poor  joke  about  the  Father 
of  his  Country  playing  ball  with  the  Columbus  of  Persico's  group  of 
Columbus  balancing  the  World,  which  is  at  the  head  of  the  steps,  on  the 
south  side,  leading  up  to  the  eastern  main  entrance  of  the  Capitol — 
Greenough's  group  of  The  Rescue  being  on  the  north  side.  Despite  the 
ridicule  that  has  been  abundantly  heaped  upon  it,  and  despite  the  jestings 
of  small  wits  with  regard  to  it,  Greenough's  Washington  is  the  grandest 
and  greatest  piece  of  sculpture  that  has  been  executed  by  an  American 
artist — -just  as  the  group  of  The  Rescue  is  grander  and  greater  than  any- 
thing in  its  particular  way  that  has  come  from  the  hand  of  any  American. 
When  we  say  of  a  modern  statue  that  it  is  a  great  work  of  art,  we  necessarily 
put  it  in  comparison  with  the  world's  masterpieces,  and  tried  by  this  severe 
test,  it  may  be  that  Greenough's  Washington  cannot  with  propriety  be 
called  great.  Compared  with  the  best  that  Greenough's  contemporaries  and 
successors  have  been  able  to  do,  it  assuredly  is  great  in  all  that  goes  to 
the  making  up  of  the  illustration  in  marble  of  an  ideal  and  poetical  theme. 
In  this  statue  the  artist  has  attempted  something  more  than  a  portrait, 
or  even  an  ideal  portrait,  of  Washington.  He  has  sought  to  represent 
Washington  in  the  character  of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  as  the  guardian 
genius  of  the  nation  which  he  founded ;  and  if  we  can  bring  ourselves  to 
view  the  statue  from  his  stand-point,  it  will  be  found  to  have  infinitely 
more  meaning  than  Crawford's  Liberty,  which  surmounts  the  towering 
dome  of  the  Capitol,  or  any  of  the  thousand  and  one  attempts  that  are 
being  made  day  after  day  and  year  after  year  to  embody  abstract  ideas 
in  bronze  or  marble. 

That  Greenough's  Washington  has  not  made  a  more  profound  impres- 
sion on  all  classes  of  Americans — uncultivated  as  well  as  cultivated — is 
due  in  a  great  measure,  we  think,  to  the  most  unfortunate  position  in 


POWERS  AND  GREENOUGH. 


53 


which  it  is  placed.  Grcenough  intended  the  statue  to  stand  in  the  rotunda 
of  the  Capitol,  just  under  the  centre  of  the  dome,  and  as  that  is  so  obviously 
the  right  place  for  it,  it  is  marvellous  it  was  ever  put  where  it  is,  or 
that  it  has  been  permitted  to  remain  where  it  is  for  so  many  years  without 
any  attempt  whatever  having  been  made  to  give  it  a  housing  in  its  proper 
shrine.  When  the  artist  heard  that  it  had  been  dumped — dumped  is  the 
only  right  word  in  such  a  connection — into  the  shabby  little  park  to  the 
east  of  the  Capitol,  he  was  horrified  and  grieved  beyond  measure.  He 
declared  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  figure  to  produce  the  effect 
he  desired  and  intended  in  such  a  location,  or  in  any  open  air  location; 
that  in  a  few  years,  through  the  influence  of  frosts  and  heat,  rain  and 
sunshine,  the  marble  would  in  all  probability  be  injured  beyond  repair; 
and  that,  had  he  proposed  to  sculpture  an  open  air  figure,  he  would 
certainly  have  represented  Washington  on  horseback,  and  in  his  uniform, 
as  the  generalissimo  of  the  Continental  armies — that  is,  he  would  have 
represented  him  as  a  reality  rather  than  as  an  Ideality.  What  Greenough 
had  to  say  about  the  unfortunate  placing  of  the  noble  work  upon  which 
he  expended  so  much  thought  and  labour  is  particularly  worthy  of  attention, 
as  it  abundantly  proves  that,  in  making  this  statue  what  it  is,  he  worked 
with  the  intelligence  of  a  true  and  really  cultivated  artist,  and  that  he  was 
not  carried  away  and  induced  to  perpetrate  an  artistic  absurdity  by  any 
pseudo-classical  notions  or  theories. 

A  mere  glance  at  this  statue  makes  it  evident  that  the  artist  had  in 
his  mind  the  descriptions  that  have  come  down  to  us  of  the  famous 
chryselephantine  statue  of  Jupiter  by  Phidias,  which  was  undoubtedly  the 
greatest  piece  of  sculpture  ever  executed.  The  pose  and  the  arrangement 
of  the  draperies  are  almost,  if  not  quite  the  same,  and  even  the  details 
of  the  ornamentation  of  the  chair  suggest  the  accessories  of  the  crowning 
effort  of  the    sculptor's  art.     Had  the  statue    of   Phidias,  or  even  an 


54 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


authentic  figurement  of  it,  been  in  existence  Greenough  probably  would 
have  hesitated  about  attempting  an  imitation  of  it  in  his  Washington. 
Having,  however,  nothing  but  the  descriptions  he  probably  thought  himself 
justified  in  at  least  borrowing  a  suggestion  from  Phidias  for  a  work  totally 
different  in  idea  and  aim  from  that  of  the  Athenian  sculptor — for  the 
Washington  of  Greenough  is  not  a  Jupiter,  nor  was  it  intended  to  be, 
but  it  is  an  idealization  of  the  real  Washington  with  a  view  of  representing 
him  as  the  guardian  genius  of  his  country.  It  was  a  bold  attempt  this, 
to  even  suggest  an  intention  of  imitating  the  Olympian  Jupiter,  but  the 
boldness  of  the  artist  had  its  ample  justification  in  the  admirable  result 
which  he  achieved.  The  Washington  of  the  Capitol,  if  it  is,  as  it  should 
be,  viewed  as  an  ideal  work,  is  satisfying — how  much  more  than  that  can 
be  said  of  any  but  a  very  few  of  the  artistic  masterpieces  which  the  world 
contains  at  the  present  time  ? 

Greenough  has  represented  Washington  as  seated  in  an  arm  chair, 
severe  in  its  outline,  but  richly  ornate  in  its  details.  The  figure  is  nude 
to  the  waist,  but  the  lower  limbs  are  clothed  in  a  drapery  which  falls  in 
ample  yet  graceful  folds.  The  left  hand  rests  on  the  lap  and  holds  a 
sheathed  sword  of  antique  pattern;  the  right  hand  is  raised  and  points  to 
heaven.  The  countenance  is  full  of  dignity  and  benignity.  It  has  all, 
and  more  of  that  nobility  and  grandeur  which  are  revealed  to  us  in  the 
best  portraits  of  Washington, — and  there  is  both  nobility  and  grandeur  in 
them.  The  torso,  which  is  modelled  with  remarkable  boldness,  united 
with  refinement,  is  fit  to  be  that  of  a  Jupiter,  or  better  still,  of  the  idealized 
representation  of  a  great  nation's  greatest  hero,  a  true  father  of  his  country. 
Greenough  said  that  he  intended  to  symbolize  by  the  peculiar  attitude  of 
the  figure,  the  resignation  by  Washington  of  his  commission,  and  his 
recommendation  of  his  countrymen  to  the  care  and  guidance  of  God. 
This  explanation  is  as  good  as  any,  but  in  this  as  in  every  truly  ideal 


POWERS  AND  GREENOUGH. 


55 


work  of  art,  there  is  much  more  suggested  than  the  artist  was  willing, 
or  perhaps  able,  to  put  into  words  concerning  it.  The  chair  in  which 
the  figure  is  seated  is  beautifully  and  most  appropriately  ornamented, 
although  not  in  such  a  manner  as  to  attract  the  eye  in  preference  to 
the  statue  itself.  The  chair,  as  an  essential  but  subordinate  part  of  the 
composition,  has  been  kept  in  strict  subordination  to  the  main  incident, 
and  nowhere  more  than  in  the  management  of  it,  in  all  its  details,  have 
the  refined  taste  and  true  artistic  skill  of  the  sculpture  shown  themselves 
to  better  advantage,  or  in  a  manner  more  instructive  to  those  who  desire 
to  study  the  masterpieces  of  art  with  a  view  to  something  beyond  the 
mere  transient  delight  of  the  eye.  The.  back  of  the  chair  is  of  open 
work,  very  rich  but  very  chaste  in  its  antique  suggestiveness.  One  end 
of  the  back  is  supported  by  a  small  figure  of  Columbus  intently  gazing 
at  a  globe  which  he  holds  in  one  of  his  hands;  the  other  end  is  supported  by 
the  figure  of  an  Indian  chief.  Both  of  these  statuettes  are  exquisitely  carved, 
as  are  the  bas-reliefs  on  the  sides  of  the  chair,  one  of  which  represents  the 
infant  Hercules  strangling  the  serpent,  and  the  other  Apollo  guiding  the 
chariot  of  the  Sun.  The  whole  is  cut  from  a  single  block  of  the  finest 
marble  that  the  famous  quarries  of  Carrara  were  able  to  afford  to  the 
sculptor,  and  the  composition  in  all  its  parts  is  finished  with  a  refinement 
of  skill  that  does  not  admit  of  fault-finding.  Greenough  fully  appreciated 
the  great  honor  done  him  when  the  commission  for  this  statue  was  given, 
and  he  determined  that  through  no  lack  of  effort  on  his  part  should  it 
be  less  than  a  masterpiece. 

A  masterpiece  it  assuredly  is,  and  it  is  a  thousand  pities  that  it  has 
not  long  ere  this  been  taken  in  from  the  exposed  and  most  unsuitable 
location  where  some  blundering  official  dumped  it,  and  put  where  it  was 
originally  intended  to  go,  in  the  centre  of  the  rotunda.  What  the  artist 
feared  with  regard  to  the  effects  of  the  weather  has  already  been  to  some 


56 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


extent  realized.  The  statue  has  been  damaged,  but,  as  yet  not  irreparably, 
but  it  undoubtedly  will  be  damaged  beyond  repair  before  many  years  go 
by  if  it  is  permitted  to  remain  unhoused.  As  this  is  by  all  odds  the 
finest  work  of  art  that  the  government  possesses,  and,  as  the  entire  nation 
has  an  interest  not  only  in  its  preservation,  but  in  having  the  intentions 
of  the  artist  with  regard  to  it  carried  out,  it  is  much  to  be  hoped  that 
a  very  serious  effort  will  be  made,  and  made  soon,  to  persuade  the  proper 
authorities  to  take  it  into  the  Capitol  building,  and  to  give  peace  to 
Greenough's  ghost  by  standing  it  where  it  belongs,  under  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  domes  that  has  ever  been  constructed. 

The  group  to  which  the  artist  has  given  the  name  of  The  Rescue, 
and  by  which  he  intended  to  symbolize  the  forces  of  civilization  conquering 
the  savage,  calls  for  fewer  words  of  comment  than  do  the  Washington. 
This  was  the  first  large  group  of  statuary  executed  by  an  American,  and 
so  fine  a  one  has  not  been  executed  since  by  any  American.  The  figures 
are  four  in  number,  an  Indian,  a  brawny  hunter,  and  a  mother  and  her 
babe.  The  Indian,  who  is  nude  to  the  waist,  is  grasped  from  behind  by 
the  white  man,  who  stays  his  uplifted  tomahawk.  He  is  struggling,  but 
struggling  in  vain,  and  the  issues  of  the  conflict  are  not  doubtful.  Behind 
the  hunter — or  rather  at  one  side — crouches  the  woman  with  the 
little  child  in  her  arms.  The  composition  entirely  fulfills  some  of  the 
most  essential  conditions  of  a  good  statuary  group;  it  tells  its  story 
distinctly,  and  it  composes  well  from  whatever  point  of  view  it  may  be 
surveyed. 

Greenough  sculptured  a  large  number  of  portrait  busts,  ideal  busts 
of  Christ  and  Abel,  and,  in  addition  to  those  already  mentioned,  several 
statues  marked  by  high  ideal  qualities — the  most  important  of  these  are  a 
Venus  Victrix,  an  Angel  Abdiel,  and  a  Medora. 


POWERS  AND  GREENOUGH. 


57 


Greenough  and  Powers  were  very  nearly  of  an  age;  both  were  born 
in  1805 — Powers  in  July  and  Greenough  in  September.  Their  early 
circumstances,  and  their  opportunities  for  qualifying  themselves  for  the 
adequate  performance  of  artistic  work,  were  very  different.  Greenough  was 
the  son  of  a  wealthy  merchant  of  Boston  and  he  received  the  best  education 
that  the  times  afforded.  His  associates  were  cultivated  people,  and  his 
whole  early  training  was  of  a  kind  to  develop  his  artistic  instincts  and 
faculties.  He  entered  as  a  student  at  Harvard  when  only  sixteen  years 
old,  and  although  he  did  not  graduate,  he  remained  in  the  college  long 
enough  to  go  out  into  the  world  benefitted  by  the  best  instruction  it  was 
able  to  bestow.  Greenough  at  a  very  early  age  showed  a  strong  artistic 
bent,  and  he  was  encouraged  to  cultivate  his  talents  by  the  sympathetic 
advice  of  Washington  Allston.  It  was  probably  through  Allston's  recom- 
mendation that  he  decided  to  go  to  Rome  before  he  had  completed  his 
college  course.  When  he  arrived  in  Rome,  he  found  Thorwaldsen  at  the 
head  of  the  school  of  sculpture  there.  Under  the  direction  of  the  venerable 
Dane  he  studied  hard — too  hard  for  his  health,  for  he  was  finally  compelled 
to  stop  work  and  return  home  to  recruit.  He  remained  in  the  United 
States  for  several  months,  and  during  the  time  modelled  busts  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  and  other  personages  of  more 
or  less  prominence,  which  gave  him  an  excellent  standing  as  an  artist 
with  the  American  public.  On  his  return  to  Europe  he  first  went  to  Paris, 
where  he  made  a  bust  of  Lafayette,  which  the  subject  of  it  and  his  friends 
pronounced  the  best  portrait  of  him  that  had  ever  been  executed.  A 
replica  of  this  bust  is  in  the  collection  of  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the 
Fine  Arts.  This  work  completed,  Greenough  returned  to  Italy,  where  he 
resided  until  1851,  when  he  came  to  the  United  States  for  the  purpose 
of  superintending  the  erection  of  his  group  of  The  Rescue.  It  is  sad  to 
think  that  the  last  days  of  this  excellent  artist  and  most  estimable  man 
were  clouded  by  mental  disease.    He  died  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  in  1852. 


58 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


Powers  was  a  self-made  man.  He  had  none  of  the  advantages  which 
Greenough  enjoyed,  and  was  compelled  from  the  first  to  make  his  own 
way.  His  artistic  studies  were  prosecuted  under  the  most  disadvantageous 
circumstances,  and  the  matter  for  wonder  is,  not  that  he  did  so  much 
work  of  an  exceedingly  meritorious  character,  but  that  he  did  any  that 
was  capable  of  giving  him  a  genuine  reputation  as  an  artist.  He  was 
born  in  Woodstock,  Vermont,  but  when  he  was  about  eleven  years  of 
age  his  parents  removed  to  Cincinnati,  and  in  that  place  he  resided  until 
1835,  when,  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Longworth,  who  took  a  very  lively 
interest  in  him,  he  went  to  Washington  with  the  rather  indefinite  idea  in 
his  head  that  he  would  there  find  facilities  for  artistic  training  that 
Cincinnati  lacked.  When  a  mere  boy,  Powers  showed  an  extraordinary 
inventive  and  mechanical  genius,  and  during  his  residence  in  Cincinnati 
he  brought  this  into  play  to  earn  an  honest  penny  wherever  there  was 
one  to  be  earned.  One  of  his  most  constant  employers  was  a  Frenchman 
named  Dorfeuille,  who  managed  a  sort  of  museum.  For  him  Powers 
modelled  a  group  of  wax-figures,  which  was  greatly  admired  by  the  not 
very  critical  visitors  to  the  museum,  and  made  a  great  number  of  ingenious 
mechanical  contrivances.  The  most  important  of  these  was  a  spectacular 
affair  representative  of  the  Infernal  Regions — or  at  least  what  Powers 
imagined  them  to  be.  In  this  there  was  an  abundance  of  demons, 
skeletons,  ghosts,  and  so  forth,  which  moved  about  with  the  assistance 
of  wires  and  springs,  and  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  exercised  a  salutary 
influence  on  the  beholders.  Powers  had  been  about  two  years  in  the 
employ  of  the  museum  manager,  when  he,  for  the  first  time,  saw  a  marble 
bust.  It  was  a  portrait  of  Washington  by  Canova,  and  as  the  artist  of 
the  Infernal  Regions  and  the  wax-work  group  insisted  very  strenuously  that 
he  could  do  that  sort  of  thing,  and  was  very  anxious  for  a  fair  opportunity 
to  try  his  hand,  his  good  friend  Mr.  Longworth  gave  him  the  means  to 
go  to  Washington.    On  his  arrival  at  Washington  he  speedily  found  that 


POWERS  AND   GREEN OUGH. 


59 


the  facilities  for  obtaining  an  art  education  were  not  much  greater  there 
than  they  were  in  Cincinnati.  He,  however,  managed  to  support  himself 
for  a  couple  of  years  by  doing  whatever  he  could  get  pay  for,  and  was 
so  successful  with  portrait  busts  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  Jackson,  Van 
Buren,  Webster,  Calhoun,  Colonel  Preston,  and  other  public  men,  that 
his  friends  were  induced  to  make  an  effort  to  send  him  to  Europe.  Mr. 
Longworth  now  again  came  to  his  assistance,  and  it  was  mainly  due  to 
that  gentleman  and  to  Colonel  Preston  that  Powers  was  enabled  to  take 
up  his  residence  in  Italy,  and  thus  put  himself  in  the  way  of  becoming 
a  genuine  artist.  Powers  is  described  as  having  been  at  this  period,  a 
tall,  thin,  and  decidedly  "slab-sided"  individual — awkward  and  uncouth 
enough  in  his  appearance,  but  with  a  wonderfully  bright  and  intelligent 
eye,  and  with  an  exceedingly  energetic  and  "knowing'-  air  about  him. 
On  his  arrival  in  Italy  he  found  Greenough  already  established  there,  and 
he  was  most  fortunate  in  securing  him  for  a  friend.  It  was  in  1837  that 
Powers  took  up  his  residence  in  Florence,  and  he  made  that  city  his 
home  during  the  balance  of  his  life.  He  had  not  been  a  great  while  in 
Florence  before  he  began  to  gain  an  excellent  reputation  for  his  portrait 
busts.  He  supported  himself  by  the  execution  of  works  of  this  kind,  and 
employed  his  leisure  in  the  modelling  of  his  Greek  Slave.  With  the 
brilliant  success  of  that  statue  his  fortunes  were  secured. 

Powers  never  lost  his  strong  mechanical  bent,  and  he  was  the  inventor 
of  a  great  number  of  tools  and  instruments  for  facilitating  the  sculptor's 
work.  One  of  these  was  a  perforated  file,  which  permitted  the  marble 
dust  to  fall  through  the  back  of  the  tool  instead  of  clogging  its  face. 
It  was  his  habit,  especially  during  the  last  years  of  his  life,  to  model 
directly  in  plaster  instead  of  in  clay,  as  is  the  usual  custom  with  sculptors. 
His  method  of  working  has  some  advantages,  but  they  are  probably  more 
than  overbalanced  by  the  disadvantages — not  the  least  of  which  is  that 


6o 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


it  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  after  a  piece  of  work  has  been  laid  out  to 
make  the  slight,  but  often  very  important,  changes  in  the  pose  of  a  head 
or  figure  which  represent  all  the  difference  between  grace  and  awkward- 
ness. An  artist's  work  is  necessarily,  to  a  very  large  extent,  experimental, 
and  no  matter  how  thoroughly  a  subject  may  be  digested  in  the  mind,  or 
how  ample  the  preparations  may  be,  only  when  it  is  tolerably  well  advanced 
is  it  possible  to  decide  exactly  what  it  shall  be  in  all  its  details.  This  is 
particularly  the  case  with  a  piece  of  sculpture,  and  the  sculptor  who  deprives 
himself  of  the  facilities  for  making  changes  which  the  soft  clay  affords, 
places  himself  at  a  very  great  disadvantage.  That  Powers'  method  of 
modelling  in  plaster  is  not  the  best  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  it  has  not 
been  adopted  by  sculptors  generally.  Powers,  however,  was  an  obstinate 
and  an  opinionated  man,  and  having  satisfied  himself  that  his  notions  and 
ways  of  doing  things  were  the  best  he  did  not  permit  himself  to  remain 
open  to  argument.  One  of  his  notions  was  that  the  government  owed  it 
to  him  to  give  him  an  important  commission.  He  was  invited  to  compete 
for  some  of  the  statuary  work  of  the  Capitol,  but  this  invitation  he  resented 
as  an  insult.  That  he  did  not  get  an  important  commission  was  perhaps 
fortunate  both  for  himself  and  for  the  government.  Excellent  as  many 
of  his  performances  were,  there  was  nothing  in  the  best  of  them  to  indicate 
that  he  was  capable  of  doing  full  justice  to  such  themes  as  he  would  have 
been  compelled  to  treat  had  he  undertaken  to  contribute  to  the  adornments 
of  the  National  Capitol. 


KYBIA  TIE  BMHD  &IKIL  OF  FOMFEIIo 


/ 


CHAPTER  III. 


CRAWFORD  AND  ROGERS 


T  would  be  impossible  to  bestow  higher  praise  on  any  work 
of  art  than  that  which  Michael  Angelo  bestowed  upon  the 
■  second  pair  of  bronze  doors  which  Ghiberti  made  for  the 
baptistery  of  the  Church  of  San  Giovanni  in  Florence.  He 
said  that  they  were  worthy  to  be  the  gates  of  Paradise,  and  he  proved 
the  sincerity  of  his  admiration  by  imitating  some  of  their  details  in  his 
own  still  mightier  works.  The  figure  of  Adam,  in  the  painting  by  Michael 
Angelo  on  the  ceiling  of  the  Sistine  Chapel  representing  the  creation  of 
our  first  parent, — a  figure  which  is  justly  regarded  as  one  of  his  most 
masterly  representations  of  the  human  form — is  identical  in  all  essentials 
with  a  similar  figure  in  one  of  the  panels  of  Ghiberti's  doors.  In  those 
days  it  was  necessary  for  an  artist  to  be  a  thorough  workman  as  well  as 
an  inventor.  The  problem  Ghiberti  had  before  him,  when  he  competed 
for  the  execution  of  these  doors,  was  not  so  much  the  production  of  designs 
superior  to  any  that  had  been  made  before,  or  than  those  who  engaged 
with  him  in  the  competition  wrere  capable  of,  as  it  was  the  making  of  a 
perfect  piece  of  bronze  casting.  In  the  first  pair  of  doors,  wrhich  illustrated 
scenes  in  New  Testament  history,  he  was  obliged  by  the  terms  of  his 
contract  to  follow  the  general  characteristics  of  a  pair  made  by  Andrea 

61 


62 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


Pisano  from  designs  furnished  by  Giotto.  Ghiberti's  composition,  and  the 
workmanship  on  it,  were  so  far  superior  to  his  model,  that  the  contract 
for  another  pair  of  doors,  to  be  embellished  with  Old  Testament  scenes 
and  subjects,  was  awarded  to  him  without  competition,  and  it  was  not 
only  permitted,  but  desired,  that  he  should  rely  upon  his  own  genius  for 
the  invention  and  execution  of  the  work  in  all  its  details.  Being  left 
entirely  unfettered,  the  artist  surpassed  himself  as  he  had  previously  sur- 
passed others,  and  he  succeeded  in  producing  a  masterpiece,  the  influence 
of  which  upon  the  revival  of  the  art  of  sculpture  was  immediate,  important 
and  far-reaching.  Herman  Grimm  says  that  this  pair  of  doors  "is  the  first 
important  creation  of  Florentine  art,"  which  is  as  much  as  to  say  that  it 
carried  the  renaissance  beyond  its  mere  tentative  stages,  and  made  possible 
the  great  modern  works  which  rivalled,  and,  in  not  a  few  particulars, 
surpassed  the  performances  of  the  greatest  of  the  ancients.  A  cast,  in 
plaster,  from  these  doors  has  been  for  many  years  in  the  collection  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  and  it  has  justly  been  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  valued  of  the  treasures  of  that  institution. 

It  was  upon  Ghiberti's  design  that  Thomas  Crawford  and  Randolph 
Rogers  based  their  designs  for  the  two  sets  of  bronze  doors  at  the  National 
Capitol  at  Washington.  These  doors  are  not  the  less  admirable  for  being 
in  a  certain  sense  imitations  of  an  older  work;  on  the  contrary  the  chances 
are  that  a  greater  measure  of  success  has  been  achieved  by  the  frank 
acceptance  of  an  acknowledged  masterpiece  as  a  model  than  would  have 
been  had  the  artist  decided  to  attempt  the  execution  of  entire  novelties. 
It  is  a  characteristic  of  all  the  arts  that  certain  types  become  fixed,  and 
it  is  only  men  of  the  widest  and  most  original  genius  who  are  able  to 
break  away  from  them  and  to  give  the  world  something  new,  which  in 
its  turn  becomes  a  fixed  type.  Indeed,  men  of  the  highest  genius — such 
men  as  only  appear  occasionally  in  the  course  of  centuries — very  much 


CRAWFORD  AND  ROGERS. 


63 


oftener  produce  what  are  in  reality  only  modifications  of  fixed  types  than 
they  do  what  can  properly  be  regarded  as  absolutely  new  creatures.  liven 
so  great  and  original  an  artist  as  Michael  Angelo  was  content  to  adopt 
and  improve  upon  the  conceptions  of  his  predecessors,  and  we  find  the 
prototypes  of  some  of  his  most  characteristic  works  in  the  figures  on 
Ghiberti's  doors,  just  as  we  find  the  prototypes  of  some  of  the  most 
imposing  features  of  Dante's  Divine  Comedy  in  numerous  works  dating 
from  Homer's  time  to  his  own,  or  the  prototypes  of  many  of  the  most 
impressive  features  of  Shakespeare's  plays  in  Homer,  in  Boccaccio  and 
the  other  Italian  novelists,  and  in  the  dramatists  who  were  his  immediate 
predecessors  and  contemporaries. 

The  bronze  doors  modelled  by  Crawford  are  hung  at  the  eastern 
entrance  of  the  north,  or  Senate  wing  of  the  Capitol.  Those  modelled 
by  Rogers  are  at  the  eastern  entrance  of  the  central  building,  and  open 
into  the  rotunda.  Both  are  most  advantageously  placed,  more  so  in  fact 
than  many  of  the  sculptures  and  paintings  which  are  supposed  to  decorate 
the  Capitol.  It  cannot  be  denied,  however,  that  some  of  the  so-called  works 
of  art  in  this  building  are  well  hidden  away  in  dark  corners,  for  they  do 
credit  neither  to  those  who  executed  nor  to  the  government  which  ordered 
them.  It  is  putting  it  mildly  to  say  that  the  money  expended  on  them  was 
wasted.  The  American  people  will  probably  some  time  awaken  to  an 
appreciation  of  the  fact  that  they  possess  in  their  National  Capitol  a 
magnificent  architectural  pile,  which,  in  many  of  the  essentials  of  true 
grandeur  is  not  equalled  nor  surpassed  by  any  building  in  the  world, 
and  will  demand  that  the  genuine  works  of  art  that  have  been  executed 
for  its  adornment  shall  be  properly  placed  and  properly  cared  for,  and 
that  Congress  shall  cease  giving  commissions  to  artistic  charlatans  for 
the  disfigurement  of  its  walls  and  niches.  So  utterly  meretricious  are 
many  of  the  paintings  and  statues  at  the  Capitol,  and  so  utterly  reckless 


64 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


has  Congress  been,  especially  of  late  years,  in  giving  very  important 
commissions  to  persons  whom  it  would  be  a  stretch  of  courtesy  to  call 
artists,  that  it  is  matter  for  sincere  congratulation  that  it  fell  to  such 
competent  sculptors  as  Greenough,  Crawford  and  Rogers  to  design  many 
of  the  most  important  of  the  artistic  adornments  of  the  building.  The 
bronze  doors  of  Crawford  and  Rogers  may  not  be  beyond  criticism,  and 
the  statues  by  Crawford  which  fill  the  pediment  of  the  north  wing  may 
fall  far  short  of  being  all  that  a  pediment  group  ought  to  be,  but  it  will 
be  fortunate  if  the  doors  which  are  yet  to  be  made,  and  if  the  group 
for  the  south  wing  are  at  all  up  to  their  standard  of  excellence.  The' 
statues  of  the  Italian  Persico,  and  the  queer  bas-reliefs  in  the  rotunda,  we 
do  not  wonder  at,  even  if  we  fail  to  admire  them.  When  they  were 
executed  there  were  no  American  artists — and  especially  no  American 
sculptors — capable  of  undertaking  such  works,  and  there  was  besides  little 
artistic  knowledge  and  little  artistic  taste,  even  among  the  most  cultivated 
men  of  the  day.  The  worst  of  these  things,  however,  is  respectable,  and 
even  worthy  of  admiration  in  comparison  with  the  hideous  fresco  which 
disfigures  the  ceiling  of  the  dome,  not  to  mention  other  of  the  abomina- 
tions,— nearly  all  of  which  are  contemporary — which  greet  the  eyes  of  the 
visitor  at  every  turn,  as  he 'strolls  through  the  building.  For  these  things 
there  is  absolutely  no  excuse;  the  large  sums  of  money  that  have  been 
expended  upon  them  have  been  worse  than  wasted;  and  it  is  discreditable, 
not  only  to  Congress,  but  to  the  American  people,  that  they  should  exist 
and  that  there  is  a  strong  probability  of  many  more  of  the  same  kind 
being  perpetrated,  until  the  Capitol  becomes  a  veritable  house  of  horrors. 

Crawford  was  an  artist  gifted  with  a  prolific  invention — indeed,  his 
invention  too  often  ran  away  with  his  judgment  as  a  careful  workman; 
that  is,  it  induced  him  to  undertake  more  than  it  was  possible  for  him 
to  execute  in  the  best  manner — and  his  artistic  education  was  much  more 


CRAWFORD  AND  ROGERS. 


65 


complete  than  that  of  any  previous  American  sculptor  had  been.  He, 
however,  attempted  too  much,  and  did  too  much,  for  the  work  to  be 
thoroughly  well  done.  Many  artists,  it  is  true,  have  attempted  more  and 
executed  more,  but  it  has  been  with  the  assistance  of  large  numbers  of 
men  whose  attainments  were  of  a  very  high  order,  and  who  had  as  just 
a  claim  to  be  regarded  as  artists  as  the  masters  under  whose  directions 
they  worked,  and  whose  conceptions  they  aided  in  carrying  out.  Crawford 
had  no  assistance  except  that  of  the  bronze  founders  and  some  Italian 
marble  cutters,  who,  however  skillful  they  might  have  been  within  the 
limitations  of  their  powers  were  merely  workmen,  and  wrere  not  in  any 
proper  sense  of  the  word,  artists.  Ghiberti  was  forty  years  in  making  the 
two  pairs  of  bronze  doors  for  the  baptistery  at  Florence,  and  in  the  making 
of  them  he  had,  not  only  the  help,  first  of  his  father  and  then  of  his 
brother,  but  that  of  a  considerable  number  of  skilled  modellers  and  metal 
workers.  Nearly  the  whole  of  his  artistic  lifetime  was  spent  in  the  execution 
of  this  one  task,  while  Crawford's  pair  of  doors,  which  are  as  elaborate  in 
their  general  design  as  those  of  Ghiberti,  constitute  but  a  single  item  in 
a  long  list  of  sculptures  designed  for  the  United  States  Government,  to 
say  nothing  of  his  many  other  performances.  The  mere  making  of  the 
designs,  however,  important  a  part  as  it  was,  was  not  the  major  part  of 
Ghiberti's  task.  Fine  and  truly  original  as  the  designs  are,  the  astonishing 
thing  about  these  doors  is  the  exquisite  finish  of  every  detail,  to  the  very 
minutest.  They  are  jewels  on  an  immense  scale,  and  it  is  the  workmanship 
quite  as  much  as  the  designs  that  give  them  their  value.  Crawford's  task 
was  practically  at  an  end  when  his  models  were  completed  and  cast  in 
plaster ;  the  doors  themselves  were  cast  and  finished  at  the  bronze  foundry. 
The  modern  artist  too  had  his  general  design  ready  made  for  him,  at  least 
to  all  intents,  but  this  was  all  the  more  reason  why  the  details,  which 
were  his  own  inventions,  should  have  in  some  measure  approached  the 
rare  excellence  of  the  work  which  he  took  for  his  model.    Of  the  baptistery 


66 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


doors  it  is  told,  not  only  that  Michael  Angelo  copied  from  them  his  figure 
of  Adam  and  his  composition  of  Noah  and  his  Sons  on  the  ceiling  of  the 
Sistine  Chapel,  but  that  they  suggested  a  variety  of  new  motives,  both  to 
sculptors  and  painters,  as,  for  instance,  the  lifting  of  the  shoulder  by  the 
weight  of  the  body  being  pressed  upon  one  arm.  Rich  and  really  beautiful 
as  Crawford's  work  certainly  is,  we  look  to  it  in  vain  either  for  suggestive 
details  of  this  kind  or  for  the  jewel-like  finish  of  the  doors  made  by 
Ghiberti. 

In  calling  attention  to  the  comparative  shortcomings  of  the  bronze 
doors  of  the  Capitol,  there  is  no  disposition  to  judge  harshly  the  works 
of  the  artists — for  what  has  been  said  concerning  the  pair  of  doors  designed 
by  Crawford,  will  apply  with  equal  or  greater  force  to  the  pair  designed 
by  Rogers — but,  is  it  not  worth  considering  whether  the  reason  why  these 
and  so  many  other  modern  artistic  performances  of  quite  genuine  merit, 
in  certain  respects,  fail  to  impress  in  an  adequate  manner,  not  merely 
the  masses,  but  cultivated  beholders,  is  that  they  are  lacking  at  once  in 
thoroughly  refined  workmanship,  and  in  other  and  equally  essential  matters? 
There  is  this,  however,  to  be  said  in  behalf  of  the  modern  artists — they 
were  limited  both  in  time  and  money,  while  Ghiberti,  especially  for  his 
masterpiece,  was  given  an  absolute  carte  blanche.  The  Italian,  too,  was 
sustained  and  stimulated  by  a  popular  interest  in  his  work  and  by  an 
assurance  of  hearty  popular  applause,  while  the  Americans  had  only  a 
few  cultivated  people  among  their  countrymen  to  take  any  interest  what- 
ever in  what  they  were  doing. 

The  pair  of  doors  designed  by  Crawford  represents  the  civic  and 
military  careers  of  Washington — the  scenes  in  the  panels  of  one  wing 
being  important  incidents  of  the  period  when  he  fought  to  give  his  country 
liberty,  and  those  in  the  other  being  records  of  his  services  as  a  statesman 


CRAWFORD  AND  ROGERS. 


67 


in  aiding  to  establish  those  liberties  on  a  firm  basis  of  constitutional  law. 
The  composition  is  exceedingly  rich,  and,  as  its  location,  at  the  entrance 
to  the  Senate  wing  is  admirable  in  every  way,  the  effect  upon  one 
ascending  the  steps  for  the  purpose  of  entering  the  building  is  most 
impressive.  This  pair  of  doors  was  the  last  work  executed  by  Crawford. 
He  put  a  great  deal  of  labor  on  it,  and  regarded  it  as  his  masterpiece, 
but  unfortunately  did  not  live  to  see  it  completed  in  bronze.  The  pair 
of  doors  designed  by  Rogers  at  the  main  entrance  is  even  more 
advantageously  located.  In  general  design  the  two  compositions  are  in 
accord,  but  Rogers  in  his  has  represented  scenes  in  the  life  of  Columbus, 
and  has  introduced  a  number  of  portraits  of  the  great  navigator  and  his 
contemporaries. 

The  invitation  to  compete  for  the  execution  of  the  sculptures  of  the 
Capitol  which  Powers  professed  to  regard  as  an  insult,  was  willingly  and 
unhesitatingly  accepted  by  Crawford,  who  was  inspired  by  an  honorable 
ambition  to  have  his  name  handed  down  to  posterity  in  connection  with 
great  works  of  truly  national  importance.  He  found  a  warm  advocate 
in  Senator  Sumner,  who  had  been  one  of  his  earliest  patrons,  and  the 
commission  which  he  was  successful  in  obtaining  was  the  most  extensive 
and  important  ever  given  by  the  government  to  any  artist.  The  selection 
of  Crawford  to  make  the  group  for  the  north  pediment,  the  colossal  statue 
for  the  dome,  and  the  bronze  doors  for  the  north  entrance  was  fortunate, 
for  it  is  exceedingly  doubtful  whether  any  other  American  artist  of  the 
day — excellent  as  some  of  them  might  have  been — could  have  executed 
the  work  in  such  a  satisfactory  manner  as  he  did — for  Crawford's  work 
undoubtedly  is  satisfactory,  even  if  it  fails  in  some  particulars  to  realize 
the  ideal  of  what  such  work  should  be. 

The  best  of  all  the  statues  executed  by  this  artist  for  the  Capitol  are 


68 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


the  huge  Liberty  which  surmounts  the  dome,  and  the  Indian  Chief  mourning 
over  the  decay  of  his  race,  which  fills  the  north  angle  of  the  north  pedi- 
ment. This  last  is  an  exceedingly  original  and  an  exceedingly  impressive 
figure.  The  Indian  is  seated  and  his  bent  head  is  resting  on  his  right 
hand,  while  the  left  hand,  resting  on  his  knee,  is  clenched  with  a  most 
expressive  gesture  of  a  despair  which  sees  absolutely  no  outlook  for  the 
future.  The  admiration  which  this  fine  statue  excited,  especially  among 
the  artist's  professional  brethren,  was  most  cordial,  and  the  English  sculptor 
Gibson,  after  Crawford's  death,  was  very  anxious  that  a  replica  in  bronze 
should  be  made  for  the  purpose  of  being  placed  upon  his  tomb.  The 
other  figures  in  the  pediment  group,  representing  the  mechanic,  the  mer- 
chant, the  school-master,  a  couple  of  school-boys,  a  settler  felling  a  tree, 
and  so  forth — the  whole  being  intended  to  typify  the  advance  of  civilization 
— are  some  of  them  executed  with  great  spirit.  The  radical  defect  of 
these  sculptures  is,  however,  that  they  do  not  compose.  The  artist  had  a 
subject — although  it  must  be  confessed  that  it  was  not  a  particularly 
inspiring  one — but  he  failed  utterly  to  appreciate  the  importance  and  even 
necessity  of  treating  it  as  a  whole.  The  group,  considered  as  a  group, 
has  no  unity  of  design;  it  is  nothing  more  than  a  collection  of  individual 
figures,  which  the  spectator  is  at  liberty,  if  he  chooses,  to  imagine  as  having 
a  relation  to  each  other,  but  which  in  reality  have  no  real  and  no  true 
artistic  connection.  The  failure  of  Crawford  to  make  a  genuine  group  in 
this  instance  is  the  more  to  be  regretted,  as  his  work  for  the  most  part 
is  up  to  a  high  standard  of  excellence. 

The  colossal  Liberty,  which  so  admirably  and  appropriately  finishes 
the  imposing  and  graceful  dome  of  the  Capitol,  is,  or  ought  to  be,  familiar 
to  all  good  Americans  through  the  medium  of  the  finely  executed 
engraving  of  it  on  the  five  dollar  legal  tender  notes  of  the  government. 
This  figure  has  been  severely  criticised  in  detail,  and  as  a  whole,  but  we 


CRAWFORD  AND  ROGERS. 


69 


have  always  regarded  it  as  a  peculiarly  successful  performance.  It  is  an 
attempt  at  the  personification  of  an  abstract  idea,  and  it  perhaps  does 
not  succeed  any  better  in  conveying  such  idea  to  the  mind  than  do 
many  other  attempts  of  a  similar  character  that  have  been  made  by  better 
and  wors.e  artists  than  Crawford.  It  is  only  a  very  few  of  the  greatest 
men  who  really  do  succeed  at  this  sort  of  thing,  and  Crawford's  Liberty, 
we  think,  ought  to  be  judged  as  a  portion  of  the  architecture  of  which 
it  is  the  crown,  rather  than  as  the  embodiment  of  an  abstraction.  It 
certainly  does  express  an  idea  in  a  reasonably  acceptable  manner  in 
accordance  with  certain  conventions,  but  its  real  merits  are  not  so  much 
in  its  fitness  to  stand  as  the  ideal  Liberty,  armed  and  watchful,  as  they 
are  in  things  more  absolutely  technical.  There  is  a  genuine  dignity  and 
a  genuine  nobility  about  the  figure,  and  the  boldness  with  which  the 
artist  has  departed  from  strictly  classical  precedents  in  the  management 
of  his  draperies,  and  especially  in  the  treatment  of  the  head-dress, 
add  to  rather  than  detract  from  the  impressiveness  of  the  work.  If  as 
an  allegory,  it  is  not  more  successful  than  many  other  sculpturesque 
allegories,  at  least  as  a  symbolical  statue  which  fulfils  certain  accepted 
conventions  it  is  one  of  the  most  successful  works  of  its  particular  class 
of  modern  times.  This  statue  undoubtedly  would  have  a  far  higher  value 
did  it  mean  more  than  it  does,  for  the  popular  imagination  does  not 
readily  find  itself  in  accord  with  conventional  artistic  symbolism — and  in 
that  the  popular  imagination  is  not  so  much  at  fault  as  many  artists  and 
their  apologists  represent  it  as  being.  The  first  essential,  however,  of  a 
work  of  sculpture,  designed  as  this  one  was,  to  crown  a  lofty  and  imposing 
pile  of  architecture,  is  that  it  shall  obviously  be  intended  to  mean  something, 
and  something  in  keeping  with  its  accessories;  and  the  second  is  that  its 
pose,  its  masses  and  its  outlines  shall  refresh  and  satisfy  the  eye.  One 
of  the  finest,  if  not  the  very  finest,  works  of  the  class  to  which  Crawford's 
Liberty  belongs,  which  has  been  designed  in  our  time,  is  Bartholdi's  Liberty 


7o 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


Lighting-  the  World,  which  it  is  proposed  to  erect  on  Bedloe's  Island  in 
New  York  harbor.  In  this  the  French  sculptor  has  succeeded  better  than 
the  American  one  did  in  expressing  an  idea,  but  even  admitting  the 
superiority  in  significance  and  in  classic  grace  and  classic  severity  of 
treatment  in  Bartholdi's  figure,  are  there  not  a  richness  and  a  variety  in 
the  outlines  of  Crawford's  statue  as  it  defines  itself  against  the  sky,  that 
we  would  not  be  willing  to  lose,  even  for  a  more  purely  classic  grace  and 
severity?  One  of  the  most  striking  and  most  admirable  features  of  Craw- 
ford's Liberty  is  the  eagle-shaped  helmet  with  its  circlet  of  stars.  This 
helmet  was  the  subject  of  much  controversy  at  the  time  the  design  was 
under  consideration,  and  it  has  been  the  subject  of  much  and  very  various 
comment  since  the  completion  of  the  work.  In  Crawford's  original  design 
the  figure  was  crowned  with  the  Phrygian  bonnet,  which,  from  being  among 
the  Romans  the  symbol  of  a  freedman,  has  among  the  moderns  come  to 
be  regarded  as  a  symbol  of  that  freedom  which  has  never  acknowledged 
bondage.  This  liberty  cap  was  objected  to  by  Jefferson  Davis,  who  was 
Secretary  of  War  at  the  time,  and  who  was  one  of  the  Commissioners 
having  supervision  of  the  works  of  art  being  executed  for  the  Capitol,  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  not  an  appropriate  adornment  for  a  statue  which 
was  supposed  to  represent  the  guardian  genius  of  a  people  which  had 
always  been  free.  The  artist,  for  his  part  contended  that,  whatever  signi- 
fication the  Phrygian  bonnet  might  originally  have  had,  it  had  come  to  be 
regarded  as  the  symbol  of  free-born  liberty,  and,  that,  as  his  work  was 
intended  for  the  people,  it  should  speak  to  them  in  a  language  which  they 
would  understand  without  an  interpreter.  Both  the  artist  and  his  critic 
were  right,  from  their  several  standpoints,  but,  we  think  that  Crawford 
must  have  been  impressed  by  the  arguments  of  the  Secretary,  and  must 
have  believed  that  his  figure  would  be  improved  by  the  adoption  of  some 
other  style  of  head-dress,  or  he  would  not  so  readily  have  consented  to  make 
the  alterations  he  did,  especially  as  Davis  does  not  seem  to  have  been  at 


CRAWFORD  AND  ROGERS. 


7* 


all  obstinate  in  insisting  upon  having  his  ideas  earned  out.  We  have 
never  seen  Crawford's  original  design,  but  we  have  very  little  difficulty  in 
believing  that  the  effectiveness  of  the  statue  has  been  considerably  increased 
by  the  substitution  of  the  eagle  helmet,  with  its  boldly  sculptured  coronet 
of  stars,  for  the  liberty  cap.  Because  Jefferson  Davis  subsequently  chose 
to  pursue  a  political  course  that  brought  upon  him  the  displeasure  of 
a  considerable  portion  of  his  countrymen,  it  does  not  at  all  follow  that 
he  was  not  capable  of  making  a  valuable  artistic  suggestion.  We  say 
this  because  the  objections  to  the  peculiar  head-dress  of  Crawford's  Liberty 
seem  to  be  chiefly  based  on  the  theory  that  it  is  all  wrong  because  Davis 
suggested  it,  or  at  least  suggested  that  the  artist  should  make  some 
alterations  in  his  original  design. 

The  only  other  important  public  work  undertaken  by  this  artist — 
unless  we  account  his  very  admiiable  statue  of  Beethoven  in  the  Boston 
music  hall,  as  a  public  work — was  the  Washington  monument  at  Richmond. 
He  made  the  design  for  this  and  completed  the  equestrian  statue  of 
Washington — the  casting  of  which  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  compli- 
mentary fete  to  the  artist  by  the  artists  and  art-lovers  of  Munich — but  did 
not  live  to  finish  all  of  the  accessory  statues  and  the  decorations.  After 
Crawford's  death,  Randolph  Rogers,  a  sculptor  of  sympathetic  genius,  who 
had  been  on  terms  of  close  and  fraternal  intimacy  with  him,  was  invited 
to  finish  it.  After  Rogers  accepted  this  peculiarly  delicate  commission,  it 
was  decided  to  make  some  alterations,  or  rather  enlargement,  in  the  design, 
with  a  particular  view  of  doing  honor  to  the  memories  of  a  greater  number 
of  distinguished  Virginians,  by  the  introduction  of  their  statues  as  acces- 
sories. It  is  admitted,  on  all  sides,  that  the  alterations  were  made  with 
judgment,  and  that  they  increased  the  richness  of  the  composition.  The 
monument  as  it  stands,  is,  therefore,  the  work  of  both  sculptors,  and 


72  AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 

Rogers  fairly  earned  the  right  to  have  his  name  inscribed  beside  that  of 
Crawford  upon  it. 

The  numerous  works  executed  by  Crawford  for  the  government 
illustrated  but  a  single  phase  of  his  prolific  and  versatile  genius.  He 
excelled  in  every  branch  of  sculpture,  and,  as  neither  his  invention  nor 
his  industry  ever  seemed  to  flag,  the  enumeration  of  his  designs  would 
make  a  very  lengthy  list.  After  his  death  his  widow  presented  to  the 
Commissioners  of  Central  Park,  New  York,  eighty-seven  plaster  casts  from 
his  studio.  Included  in  these,  were,  of  course,  a  number  of  designs  which 
had  been  executed  in  marble  or  bronze,  but  many  of  them  were  sketches 
and  studies  in  various  stages  of  advancement,  from  the  first  crude  definitions 
of  ideas  to  models  nearly  completed  and  ready  for  the  marble  cutters  or 
foundrymen  to  take  in  hand.  Among  the  most  notable  of  his  completed 
works  are  the  bronze  Beethoven  in  the  Boston  Music  Hall — of  which  a 
passing  mention  has  already  been  made ;  an  Orpheus  in  the  Boston 
Athenaeum;  a  statue  of  James  Otis  in  the  Chapel  of  Mount  Auburn 
Cemetery;  an  Adam  and  Eve  after  the  expulsion  from  Paradise,  a  Shep- 
herdess, and  a  bust  of  Josiah  Quincy,  also  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum ; 
Children  in  the  Woods,  which  belongs  to  the  Hon.  Hamilton  Fish ;  a 
Boy  Playing  Marbles;  a  Pandora;  "Dancing  Jenny,"  modelled  from  his 
little  daughter;  a  Cupid;  a  Genius  of  Mirth;  a  Flora — in  the  New  York 
Central  Park ;  a  Hebe  and  Ganymede ;  a  Mercury  and  Psyche ;  the 
Daughter  of  Herodias;  an  Aurora;  and  a  Peri.  A  copy  in  bronze  of 
his  Indian  in  the  north  pediment  of  the  Capitol  is  in  possession  of  the 
New  York  Historical  Society.  In  addition  to  these  statues  he  sculptured 
more  than  twenty  bas-reliefs  of  scriptural,  classical,  and  other  subjects. 

The  Orpheus  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum  was  Crawford's  first  ideal  work, 
and  by  many  excellent  judges  it  is  thought  that  in  subtle  suggestiveness 


CRAWFORD  AND  ROGERS. 


73 


it  is  not  surpassed  by  any  of  his  later  efforts.  It  was  this  statue  that 
won  for  the  artist  the  warm  regards  of  the  Hon.  Charles  Sumner.  That 
gentleman  not  only  admired  it  greatly,  but  he  made  his  admiration  of 
practical  value  by  inducing  a  number  of  wealthy  Bostonians  to  subscribe 
for  its  purchase.  The  Orpheus — Orpheus  descending  into  hell  in  search 
of  his  lost  love  Eurydice — was  sculptured  in  Rome  just  after  the  artist 
was  fairly  out  of  his  tutelage.  It  was  in  Rome  that  Crawford  received 
all  of  his  artistic  education,  except  what  bits  of  knowledge  with  regard  to 
the  manipulation  of  material  he  was  able  to  pick  up  in  a  marble-yard 
where  he  worked  for  some  time  before  crossing  the  Atlantic.  In  Rome 
he  studied  in  the  Academy,  and  he  had  the  benefit  of  Thorwaldsen's  advice 
and  instruction,  as  Greenough  and  many  others  had  had  before  him. 
Thorwaldsen,  in  fact,  took  a  very  lively  interest  in  all  young  artists  of 
promise,  and  possibly  in  a  good  many  that  did  not  promise  anything,  for 
he  had  the  reputation  of  being  too  good-natured  to  discourage  anybody 
who  came  to  him  for  counsel,  and  consequently  of  having  induced 
more  than  one  young  man  with  not  a  spark  of  genius  or  even  talent,  to 
attempt  things  that  nature  never  intended  that  they  should  attempt.  In 
Crawford's  case,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  assistance  of  the  Danish  sculptor 
was  of  the  greatest  value,  for  Thorwaldsen  was  no  common  man,  and  with 
his  ideas  regarding  the  poetical  aim  which  true  art  ought  to  have,  he  was 
capable  of  doing  much  towards  starting  an  ardent  and  inventive  youth 
like  Crawford  on  the  right  path.  Crawford  was  a  native  of  New  York  and 
was  born  in  March,  1813.  He  died  in  London,  October  16,  1857,  at  a 
time  when  his  genius  was  in  its  full  maturity.  He  did  not  die  of  over- 
work, or  of  an  overstraining  of  his  powers,  but  of  a  peculiarly  painful  tumor 
in  one  of  his  eyes,  which  had  for  a  considerable  time  before  his  death 
incapacitated  him  from  any  practice  of  his  profession. 

Randolph  Rogers  was  also  born  in  New  York,  but  -twelve  years  later 


74 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


than  Crawford.  He  devoted  himself  seriously  to  sculpture  at  a  later  period 
than  did  Crawford,  and  is  one  of  a  considerable  number  of  American 
painters  and  sculptors  who  have  drifted  into  art  from  other  pursuits.  It 
is  difficult  even  now  for  an  artist  to  thoroughly  qualify  himself  for  the 
practice  of  his  profession  without  going  abroad  to  at  least  complete  his 
education,  notwithstanding  that  we  have  a  number  of  art  schools  and 
academies  in  operation ;  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  it  was  an  impossibility. 
Considering  the  disadvantages  under  which  they  have  labored  it  is  really 
wonderful  that  American  artists,  and  especially  American  sculptors,  have 
succeeded  in  doing  such  very  excellent  work  as  they  must  be  credited 
with.  A  sculptor,  even  more  than  a  painter,  needs  exactly  the  kind  of 
training  that  can  only  be  obtained  in  a  school  where  the  human  form  is 
made  the  basis  of  study.  Dealing  with  the  human  form  almost  exclusively, 
it  is  essential  that  he  should  study  it  from  a  constant  succession  of  living 
examples.  The  antiques,  it  is  true,  will  teach  him  much,  but  there  is  a 
great  deal  that  they  cannot  teach  him.  Even,  however,  were  it  possible 
for  a  student  to  learn  all  that  need  be  learned  from  the  antiques,  the 
fact  that  a  close  and  exclusive  study  of  them  invariably  has  the  effect 
of  stifling  real  invention  and  real  originality,  and  of  inducing  the  artist 
to  become  a  mere  copyist  of  men  long  dead  and  gone,  is  of  itself  sufficient 
to  compel  a  sculptor  who  wishes  to  preserve  his  own  individuality,  to  go 
to  the  fountain-head  from  which  the  great  master  artists  of  the  classic 
period  drew  their  inspiration. 

Rogers  when  he  decided  to  be  a  sculptor  went  to  Rome,  for  it  was 
there  that  the  best  opportunities  were  offered,  both  for  the  study  of  nature 
and  of  the  noblest  remains  of  antique  art.  He  studied  hard  for  several 
years,  and  he  then  came  before  the  public  with  two  statues  which  at  once 
gained  him  celebrity,  and  placed  him  in  the  front  rank  of  the  sculptors 
of  the  day.    These  statues  were  a  Boy  and  a  Dog  and  Nydia  the  Blind 


CRAWFORD  AND  ROGERS. 


75 


Girl  of  Pompeii.  The  last  named,  especially,  was  greatly  admired,  and 
it  is  even  at  this  day  one  of  the  most  popular  statues  that  has  ever  been 
executed  by  an  American  artist.  Numerous  copies  of  it,  which  have  been 
made  by  the  artist  at  the  demand  of  eager  purchasers,  are  in  European  and 
American  collections,  and,  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition  of  1876,  it  and  a  Ruth 
— which  was  sculptured  at  a  later  period — figured  prominently  among  the 
works  in  the  American  section.  Rogers  has  executed  so  many,  so  im- 
portant, and  such  meritorious  works  that  it  is  impossible  to  regard  the 
Nydia  as  marking  the  culmination  of  his  artistic  career,  in  the  same  way 
that  we  are  forced  to  regard  the  Greek  Slave  as  marking  the  culmination 
of  that  of  Powers.  The  later  performances  of  Rogers,  however,  while  they 
may  show  an  increase  of  technical  skill,  do  not  excel  this  spirited  and 
thoughtful  statue  in  any  of  the  essentials  of  true  artistic  excellence.  The 
Ruth,  for  instance,  which  stood  beside  it  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition, 
and  which  represented  a  larger  experience  and  a  wider  range  of  skill, 
did  not  attract  a  tythe  of  the  attention  that  the  Nydia  did,  and  did  not 
awaken  a  tythe  of  the  admiration.  And  yet,  in  the  one  the  artist  had 
quite  as  fine  a  subject  as  in  the  other,  although  he  failed  to  obtain  the 
same  amount  of  inspiration  from  it.  The  heroine  of  the  lovely  Hebrew 
idyl  is  represented  as  resting  one  knee  on  the  ground  as  she  gathers 
the  gleanings  in  the  field  of  Boaz.  In  her  lap  are  her  gatherings,  while 
her  right  hand  is  filled  with  such  of  the  ripened  grain  as  she  has  just 
collected  from  the  ground.  The  head  is  turned  as  if  she  had  glanced 
up  a  moment  from  her  task  to  gaze  at  the  figure  of  Boaz  in  the  distance, 
and  there  is  a  peculiar  expression  imparted  by  her  eager  eyes  and  her 
half-opened  mouth,  as  if  she  was  hesitating  between  hope  and  fear  with 
regard  to  the  result  of  her  scheme  for  securing  the  protection  of  her  rich 
kinsman.  All  the  essentials  are  there  wThen  we  come  to  closely  examine 
the  figure,  and  yet  the  artist  has  somehow  failed  to  adequately  express 
all  that  was  evidently  in  his  mind,  and  it  requires  a  considerable  stretch 


76 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


of  the  imagination  to  believe  in  his  Ruth  as  Ruth,  or  as  anything  else 
than  a  pretty  young  woman  posing  in  an  interesting  attitude. 

The  Nydia,  on  the  other  hand,  is  full  of  expression,  and  it  tells  the 
story  of  the  search  of  the  blind  girl  of  Pompeii  for  her  lover  in  the  midst 
of  the  awful  scenes  that  marked  the  last  hours  of  the  doomed  city,  as 
clearly  and  intelligibly  as  it  would  be  possible  to  tell  it  with  the  limited 
resources  of  the  sculptor's  art.  But,  the  Nydia  does  something  more  than 
tell  a  story  clearly  and  intelligibly — for  a  work  of  art  might  readily  do 
that  and  yet  fail  altogether  in  things  that  every  true  connoisseur  and  every 
true  art  lover  must  regard  as  matters  even  more  essential.  Let  us,  before 
discussing  the  statue  further,  quote  Bulwer's  description  of  the  scene  of 
devastation  amidst  which  the  blind  girl  is  wandering  and  listening,  with 
the  hearing  sense  exquisitely  attuned,  for  the  voice  of  her  beloved  to  come 
to  her  through  the  thunders  of  the  volcanic  tempest,  and  through  the 
showers  of  ashes  and  scoriae  that  are  falling  around  her: — 

"Another — and  another — and  another  shower  of  ashes,  far  more  pro- 
fuse than  before,  scattered  fresh  desolation  along  the  streets.  Darkness 
once  more  wrapped  them  as  a  veil;  and  Glaucus,  his  bold  heart  at  last 
quelled  and  despairing,  sank  beneath  the  cover  of  an  arch,  and,  clasping 
lone  to  his  heart — a  bride  on  that  couch  of  ruin — resigned  himself  to  die. 

"  Meanwhile,  Nydia,  when  separated  by  the  throng  from  Glaucus  and 
lone,  had  in  vain  endeavored  to  regain  them.  In  vain  she  raised  that 
plaintive  cry  so  peculiar  to  the  blind;  it  was  lost  amidst  a  thousand  shrieks 
of  more  selfish  terror.  Again  and  again  she  returned  to  the  spot  where 
they  had  been  divided — to  find  her  companions  gone,  to  seize  every 
fugitive — to  inquire  of  Glaucus — to  be  dashed  aside  in  the  impatience  of 
distraction.    Who  in  that  hour  spared  one  thought  to  his  neighbor?  Per- 


CRAWFORD  AND  ROGERS. 


77 


haps  in  scenes  of  universal  horror,  nothing  is  more  horrid  than  the 
unnatural  selfishness  they  engender.  At  length  it  occurred  to  Nydia,  that 
as  it  had  been  resolved  to  seek  the  sea-shore  for  escape,  her  most  probable 
chance  of  rejoining  her  companions  would  be  to  persevere  in  that  direction. 
Guiding  her  steps,  then,  by  the  staff  which  she  always  carried,  she 
continued,  with  incredible  dexterity,  to  avoid  the  masses  of  ruin  that 
encumbered  the  path— to  thread  the  streets — and  unerringly  (so  blessed 
now  was  that  accustomed  darkness,  so  afflicting  in  ordinary  life !)  to  take 
the  nearest  direction  to  the  sea-side. 

"  Poor  girl !  her  courage  was  beautiful  to  behold !— - and  fate  seemed 
to  favor  one  so  helpless  1  The  boiling  torrents  touched  her  not,  save  by 
the  general  rain  which  accompanied  them ;  the  huge  fragments  of  scoriae 
shivered  the  pavement  before  and  beside  her,  but  spared  that  frail  form ; 
and  when  the  lesser  ashes  fell  over  her,  she  shook  them  away  with  a 
slight  tremor,  and  dauntlessly  resumed  her  course. 

"Weak,  exposed,  yet  fearless,  supported  but  by  one  wish,  she  was 
the  very  emblem  of  Psyche  in  her  wanderings ;  of  Hope,  walking  through 
the  Valley  of  the  Shadow;  of  the  Soul  itself— lone  but  undaunted,  amidst 
the  dangers  and  snares  of  life ! " 

There  is,  perhaps,  not  more  in  such  a  scene  as  this  that  is  essentially 
dramatic  than  there  is  in  the  Hebrew  idylist's  description  of  Ruth  gathering 
the  handfuls  which  the  reapers  of  Boaz  let  fall  for  her,  but  there  is  more 
that  requires  the  execution  of  an  artistic  tour  de  force  for  its  representation 
or  suggestion  in  a  work  of  sculpture.  In  attempting  to  represent  Nydia 
seeking  for  Glaucus  amidst  the  showers  of  ashes  belched  forth  by  Vesu- 
vius, the  artist  finds  the  line  between  brilliant  success  and  absolute  failure 
more  closely  drawn   than  he  does  when   he  essays  to  represent  Ruth 


78 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


gleaning  in  the  field  of  Boaz,  and  the  reason  for  the  qualities  in  Rogers' 
Nydia  which  have  secured  for  it  its  fame,  and  for  its  superiority  over  his 
Ruth,  and  indeed,  over  any  of  his  ideal  creations  are  not  difficult  of 
comprehension. 

The  skillfully  executed  etching  by  Mr.  Stephen  J.  Ferris  which  is 
before  the  reader,  renders  any  elaborate  description  of  Rogers'  Nydia 
unnecessary,  but  it  is  worth  while  to  invite  attention  to  some  particular 
points  of  excellence  in  it.  The  crouching  attitude,  and  the  tempest  blown 
garments  which  entangle  themselves  in  the  blind  girl's  staff  are  thoroughly 
expressive  of  a  hurried  forward  movement — or  rather  of  a  slight  pause  in 
such  a  movement  for  the  purpose  of  listening  for  some  hoped  for  voice 
to  pierce  the  darkness  and  the  tumult.  The  girl's  face  has  an  expression 
of  intense  listening  upon  it,  and  the  artist  has  increased  the  suggestiveness 
of  both  face  and  figure  in  this  respect  by  the  action  which  he  has  given 
to  the  left  hand  and  arm — the  arm  crossing  the  body  and  the  back  of 
the  hand  making  a  shield  behind  the  ear  to  gather  in  the  sound.  This 
movement  of  the  hand  and  arm  is  so  obvious,  that  on  looking  at  the 
statue,  it  is  difficult  to  think  that  the  artist  could  have  chosen  any  other 
to  express  his  idea;  and  yet,  it  is  in  just  such  niceties  as  this  that  the 
superior  excellence  of  many  of  the  finest  works  of  art  consist.  It  was 
an  analogous  movement  that  Michael  Angelo  imitated  in  his  Adam  on 
the  Sistine  Chapel  ceiling  from  one  of  the  figures  on  the  last  pair  of 
gates  made  by  Ghiberti  for  the  baptistery  at  Florence,  and  it  was  the 
profusion  with  which  just  such  simple,  natural  and  obvious  movements 
were  suggested  on  those  gates  that  made  them  exert  the  positive  influence 
they  did  in  carrying  the  renaissance  movement  to  a  point  where  it  was 
able  to  stand  alone,  and  to  produce  works  that  were  worthy  to  be  ranked 
with  those  of  the  older  civilization.  It  apparently  ought  not  to  be  difficult 
for  art  to  find  an  abundant  inspiration  in  the  infinite  suggestiveness  of 


CRAWFORD  AND  ROGERS. 


79 


nature,  but  it  apparently  is  exceedingly  difficult,  or  else  there  would  not 
be  so  few  works  of  art  which  delight  us,  mainly  because  they  fix  in 
marble  or  bronze,  or  on  the  painter's  canvas,  a  limited  number  of  the 
multitude  of  expressive  gestures  in  which  nature,  in  her  prodigal  variety, 
is  accustomed  to  deal.  In  the  suggestion  of  Nydia's  blindness,  the 
sculptor  had  a  problem  of  the  most  difficult  kind  to  solve,  but,  how  well 
has  he  solved  it,  not  only  in  the  pose  of  his  marble  figure,  but  in  the 
peculiar  expression  of  the  eyes  and  face !  The  very  adequate  manner 
in  which  the  blindness  of  the  girl  is  suggested,  is  indeed  one  of  the  most 
admirable  characteristics  of  this  interesting  statue. 

The  bronze  doors  for  the  National  Capitol,  to  which  reference  has  been 
made,  were  finished  by  Rogers  in  1858.  His  contributions  to  the  Wash- 
ington monument  at  Richmond,  which  was  not  completed  by  Crawford, 
were  some  ornaments  called  for  by  the  enlargement  of  the  design,  and 
statues  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall  and  his  father  Colonel  Thomas  Marshall, 
of  George  Mason,  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Rights  and  the  Con- 
stitution of  Virginia,  and  of  Thomas  Nelson,  one  of  the  Signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  successor  of  Jefferson  as  Governor 
of  Virginia.  In  addition  to  these,  Rogers  has  sculptured  a  number  of 
important  monumental  statues,  the  one  which  is  distinguished  by  the 
highest  ideal  qualities  being  the  Angel  of  the  Resurrection,  on  the  grave 
of  Colonel  Colt,  at  Hartford,  Connecticut.  His  Colossal  bronze  statue 
of  Lincoln — represented  as  just  having  affixed  his  signature  to  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation — which  was  erected  in  1871  in  Fairmount 
Park,  Philadelphia,  is  a  work  of  very  sterling  qualities,  and  is  entitled  to 
the  credit  of  being  one  of  the  few  really  successful  portraits  of  a  great 
man  whose  rather  ungainly  figure  made  him  the  despair  of  artists. 
Subsequently  Rogers  sculptured  a  memorial  statue  of  Secretary  Seward, 
which  is  very  similar  in  motive  to  the  Lincoln.     The  largest,  if  not  the 


8o 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


most  important  works  executed  by  this  artist  are  the  colossal  America, 
fifty  feet  high,  erected  at  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  in  1875;  and  the  yet 
larger  statue  personifying  the  State  of  Michigan,  which  was  unveiled  at 
Detroit  in  1873.  Another  noteworthy  monumental  statue  by  Rogers — 
but  of  an  earlier  date  than  those  mentioned — is  the  full-length  of  John 
Quincy  Adams  in  the  Mount  Auburn  Cemetery.  In  addition  to  these 
public  works,  Rogers  has  made  many  busts  and  ideal  figures,  of  which, 
after  his  Nydia  and  his  Ruth,  a  statue  of  Isaac  has  been  the  most  admired. 


ENGRAVED  BY  E  W  STOEART,  FROM  THE  STATUE  BY  "WILLIAM  ~W~  STORY. 


} 


CHAPTER  IV. 


STORY. 


ILLIAM  WETMORE  STORY  has  a  distinct  place  of  his  own 

among  the  American  sculptors.     He  is  not  self-taught,  and 

yet  he  belongs  to  no  school,  and  his  works  are  apparently 

uninfluenced  by  the  style  of  any  master.     Enjoying  a  larger  measure  of 

fame  than  almost  any  of  his  contemporaries,  his  fame  is  of  such  a  peculiar 

kind  that  the  honors  which  it  brings  with  it  are  most  indefinite.  While 

all  of  his  principal  performances  have  gained  him  great  repute,  the  great 

mass  of  the  public,  both  in  America  and  in  England — for  he  has  an  even 

greater  reputation  in  England  than  he  has  in  his  own  country — know 

little   or  nothing  about   them,   except  by  hearsay,  and  the  esteem  in 

which  he  is  held  is  chiefly  based  upon  the  eulogistic  reports  made  by  a 

limited   number  of  ardent  friends  and  admirers,  rather  than  upon  any 

actual  and  extended  knowledge  of  him  or  his  doings.    Story  is  a  fortunate 

man  in  more  respects  than  one,  but  he  has  been  particularly  fortunate  in 

enjoying  the  friendship  of  men  and  women  who  have  the  ear  of  the 

public,  and  whose  words  are  sure  to  be  listened  to  with  respect  and 

credence.     They  have  spoken  of  him,  and  in  no  uncertain  terms,  and  the 

American  and   English  publics  have   listened  and   believed,  and  have 

consented  to  admire  without  stopping  to  inquire  whether  their  admiration 

81 


82 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


was  in  all  respects  worthily  bestowed.  Thus  it  has  happened  that  Story 
has,  almost  without  a  word  of  dispute  from  any  one  competent  to  speak 
authoritatively  on  such  a  subject,  come  to  be  regarded  as  the  greatest  of 
living  American  sculptors — for  he  assuredly  is  so  regarded  by  many  of  the 
most  cultivated  art-lovers  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

Story,  however,  does  not  owe  the  peculiar  kind  of  reputation  which 
he  enjoys  entirely  to  his  acquaintanceship  with  eminent  literary  people 
who  have  found  it  a  pleasant  thing  to  write  about  him,  and  to  sound 
abroad  his  praises.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  too  much  to  say  that  he  is  the 
most  all-accomplished  artist  of  the  present  day — no  American  sculptor  or 
painter,  at  least,  can  rival  him  in  the  extent  and  variety  of  his  accomplish- 
ments. With  the  American  public  he  is  undoubtedly  better  known  and 
more  highly  esteemed  as  an  author  than  he  is  as  a  sculptor — that  is, 
the  American  public  understands  and  appreciates  his  worth  as  an  author, 
and  is  content  to  take  his  statues  on  trust,  in  the  faith  that  so  learned 
and  so  charming  a  writer  could  not  be  a  bad  sculptor.  Like  Dante 
Gabriel  Rossetti,  the  one-time  leader  of  the  English  pre-Raphaelites,  whose 
paintings  are  so  rarely  exhibited  where  they  can  be  examined  and  criticised, 
his  literary  has  aided  and  upheld  his  artistic  reputation.  Unlike  Rossetti, 
however,  he  has  never  put  himself  forward  as  an  artistic  theorist,  and 
has  never  attempted  to  make  himself  the  founder  of  a  school.  It  is, 
perhaps,  fortunate  that  Story  never  has  attempted  anything  of  the  kind, 
especially  in  view  of  Rossetti's  palpable  failure,  although  when  we  consider 
the  undoubted  influence  which  his  theories  have  exerted  in  advancing 
the  standard  of  contemporary  English  art,  the  originator  of  the  pre- 
Raphaelite  movement  really  has  nothing  to  reproach  himself  with  in  the 
fact  that  that  movement  did  not  result  in  accordance  with  his  wishes. 
As  a  sculptor,  Story  has  much  in  common  with  the  English  pre-Raphaelites, 
who,  with  Rossetti  at  their  head,  and  with  Ruskin  to  passionately  plead 


STORY. 


83 


their  cause,  and  to  extravagantly  extol  their  eccentricities,  created  such  an 
upturning  of  old-fashioned  artistic  ideas  in  England  and  America  nearly 
forty  years  ago.  He  has  always  aimed  at  placing  that  ideal  something, 
which  the  really  cultured  men  among  the  pre-Raphaelites  claimed  was  the 
soul  of  art,  above  the  mere  substance,  and  in  all  of  his  ideal  statues  there 
has  been  at  least  the  attempt  to  express  distinct  although  subtle  ideas, 
while  his  portraits,  whether  full-lengths  or  busts,  have  sought  to  combine 
the  severest  literalness  with  a  searching  analysis  of  that  inner  man,  to 
which  the  fleshly  covering  is  but  a  mask. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  Story  would  be  among  the  first  to  disclaim 
any  artistic  kinship  with  the  pre-Raphaelites,  but,  apart  from  the  eccentri- 
cities and  affectations  of  medievalism  which  distinguished  the  performances 
of  the  lesser  men  of  the  school,  rather  than  those  of  its  leaders,  his 
principles  are  essentially  theirs.  If  he  has  not  exerted  the  same  influence 
for  good  or  ill  that  they  have,  the  reason,  perhaps,  is  that  he  has  made 
absolutely  no  effort  in  that  direction,  and,  particularly,  that  he  has  been 
persistent  in  the  attempt  to  win  distinct  celebrities,  both  in  art  and  literature. 
Had  he  chosen  to  make  his  talents  as  an  author  subservient  to  his  art, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  would  have  exerted  a  most  potent  influence, 
but  then  the  world  might  have  lost  some  books  that  the  world  now  would 
be  loth  to  lose.  The  only  writings  by  Story  on  purely  artistic  subjects 
that  we  know  of,  are  the  papers  entitled,  Talks  in  a  Studio,  which  were 
published  several  years  ago  in  Blackwood's  Magazine,  but  which  have 
never  been  collected  in  book  form.  These,  it  is  true,  did  not  deal 
exclusively  with  artistic  topics,  but,  representing  as  they  did  the  friendly 
chatting  of  an  artist  and  a  cultivated  man  of  the  world  of  sympathetic 
tastes,  "in  a  studio,"  while  covering  the  whole  ground  of  literature  and 
art,  they  naturally  dwelt  with  particular  emphasis  on  such  subjects  as  the 
supposed  surroundings  of  the  interlocutors  would   be  apt   to  suggest. 


84 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


These  dialogues,  although  they  have  never  been  published  in  such  a  shape 
as  to  be  accessible  to  every  reader,  well  deserve  to  be,  for  they  not  only 
give  an  insight  into  Story's  way  of  thinking  about  art  and  its  objects  and 
aims,  and  reveal  many  of  the  secrets  of  his  own  methods,  but  they 
contain  many  acute  and  exceedingly  valuable  criticisms.  The  analyses 
of  the  styles  of  Michael  Angelo  and  Raphael,  and  the  comparisons 
between  them,  which  are  given  in  one  of  the  conversations,  are  contributions 
to  critical  literature  of  the  first  importance.  The  great  Florentine  is 
discussed  reverently,  but  Raphael  is  evidently  regarded  by  Story  as  having 
been  placed  on  too  high  a  pedestal  by  over  zealous  admirers,  and  the 
estimations  of  the  limitations  of  his  genius  are  well  worthy  of  the  perusal 
and  of  the  candid  consideration  even  of  those  who  may  be  compelled  to 
differ  most  widely  with  the  writer  in  the  conclusions  he  arrives  at. 

Story's  best  known  and  most  deservedly  popular  book  is  his  Roba  di 
Roma.  This  is  much  more  than  a  mere  description  of  modern  Rome,  for 
the  author  has  gone  deep  down  into  the  heart  of  his  subject,  and  has  dug 
out  from  the  moral  as  well  as  the  physical  crust  which  hides  the  real  Rome 
from  the  eye  of  the  casual  visitor  an  infinite  variety  of  rare  and  curious 
facts  which  he  discusses  in  learned,  eloquent  and  eminently  picturesque 
language.  This  is  such  a  book  as  only  a  foreigner  could  have  written 
about  Rome,  and  only  a  foreigner  who  had  resided  in  the  city  for  a  long 
term  of  years,  and  had  examined  every  nook  and  corner  with  the  keen  and 
critical  eye  of  a  trained  author  and  artist.  But,  Story  was  an  author 
before  he  was  a  sculptor,  and  before  he  saw  Rome.  In  addition  to  his 
biography  of  his  father,  Chief  Justice  Story,  he  wrote  a  legal  treatise  on 
the  Law  of  Contracts— for  he  originally  adopted  his  distinguished  father's 
profession — and  a  volume  of  poems.  He  has  always  been  ambitious  of 
obtaining  celebrity  as  a  poet,  and  it  is  said  that  he  thinks  more  of  his 
poetical  performances,  and  more  of  such  fame  as  they  have  brought  him 


STORY. 


«5 


than  he  does  of  his  sculptures  and  his  reputation  as  a  sculptor.  The 
appreciation  of  his  poetical  efforts,  however,  is  confined  to  a  comparatively 
limited  circle  of  admirers,  and  with  the  general  public  his  repute  as  a 
writer  rests  upon  his  prose  works.  As  has  happened  to  more  than  one 
man  who  has  essayed  to  obtain  distinction  in  different  lines  of  art,  his 
fame  as  a  poet  has  been  overshadowed  by  that  which  he  has  won  as  a 
prosateur  and  as  a  sculptor.  Some  of  his  poetical  writings,  however, 
deserve  to  be  much  better  known  than  they  are.  One  of  his  most  elaborate 
and  most  characteristic  poems  has  for  its  theme  the  Remorse  of  Judas. 
This  singular  piece  is  in  a  certain  sense  a  defense  of  Judas,  the 
idea  being  that  the  treacherous  Apostle  was  anxious  to  solve  the  doubts 
which,  in  spite  of  his  efforts  to  stifle  them,  would  arise  in  his  mind  as  to 
the  verity  of  the  Messiahship  of  his  Master,  by  a  test  which  would  at 
once  satisfy  himself  and  all  the  world ;  and,  that  overcome  with  remorse 
at  the  immediate  consequences  of  his  treachery,  he  went  out  and  hanged 
himself,  without  waiting  to  see  the  ultimate  results  of  his  experiment. 
This  poem,  like  the  Talks  in  a  Studio,  was  published  some  years  ago 
in  Blackwood's  Magazine,  but,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  it  has  not  been 
reprinted  in  any  collected  edition  of  the  author's  works. 

But  Story  is  not  only  a  writer  of  prose  and  poetry,  in  addition  to 
being  a  sculptor;  he  draws  and  paints — as  every  sculptor  ought  to  do 
occasionally,  for  practice  sake,  even  if  he  produces  nothing  that  he  deems 
worthy  of  being  placed  before  the  public — and  he  is  an  accomplished 
musician.  Architecture  appears  to  be  the  only  one  of  the  arts  he  has 
not  tried  his  hand  at,  which  is  somewhat  remarkable,  for  the  classic 
sculptors,  as  well  as  those  of  the  renaissance,  were  nearly  all  of  them 
architects,  and  the  relations  between  sculpture  and  architecture  are  more 
intimate  than  they  are  between  any  of  the  other  arts.  Indeed,  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  a  sculptor  ought  to  be  an  architect,  even  if  he 


86 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


does  not  care  to  follow  the  example  of  Michael  Angelo  and  others  in 
designing  buildings  and  superintending  their  construction.  The  nearly 
absolute  divorce  between  sculpture  and  architecture  in  our  day  is  a  posi- 
tive misfortune  to  both  arts,  and  sculptors  of  the  learning  and  intellectual 
attainments  of  Story  could  scarcely  do  themselves  or  the  public  a  greater 
service  than  by  devoting  a  considerable  portion  of  their  time  to  the  study 
of  architecture — at  least  to  the  extent  of  qualifying  themselves  to  speak 
with  authority  concerning  the  designs,  construction  and  ornamentation  of 
buildings  which  are  monumental  in  their  character.  Architecture  in  this 
day,  and  especially  in  this  country,  needs,  and  greatly  needs,  just  the  kind 
of  keen  critical  interest  to  be  taken  in  it  which  accomplished  artists,  and 
especially  accomplished  sculptors,  are  alone  able  to  take. 

As  has  before  been  stated,  few  of  Story's  sculptures  have  been  placed 
on  public  exhibition,  and,  consequently,  the  opportunities  afforded,  not  only 
to  the  public  but  to  connoisseurs,  for  giving  them  critical  study  and  for 
forming  estimates  of  their  artistic  value,  have  been  provokingly  limited. 
His  most  celebrated  works  of  a  purely  public  character  are  the  statue  of 
Edward  Everett  in  the  Public  Garden  at  Boston,  and  that  of  George 
Peabody  in  London.  For  the  execution  of  the  latter  choice  was  made 
of  Story  as  the  most  distinguished  of  living  American  sculptors — at  least 
the  most  distinguished  in  the  eyes  of  Englishmen.  Story,  in  fact,  has  all 
along  enjoyed  a  higher  reputation  in  England  than  he  has  in  his  own 
country,  both  as  a  litterateur  and  as  an  artist.  In  the  Exhibition  of  1862 
his  statues  of  Cleopatra  and  the  Libyan  Sibyl  were  the  only  contributions 
by  an  American  artist  that  elicited  cordial  expressions  of  admiration,  just 
as  the  Greek  Slave  of  Powers  was  the  noteworthy  representative  of 
American  art  in  the  Exhibition  of  1851.  Either  the  Cleopatra  or  the 
Sibyl,  however,  had  more  in  it  to  excite  genuine  admiration  than  had 
the  Greek  Slave,  and  those  who  best  remembered  Powers'  work  were 


STORY. 


87 


glad  to  hail  these  two  statues  as  tokens  of  an  advance  in  the  art  of 
sculpture  among  the  Americans. 

The  bronze  statue  of  Edward  Everett  is  an  attempt  to  represent 
Everett  the  orator.  It  has  been  rather  severely  criticised  as  theatrical, 
and  the  criticism  is  deserved,  or  rather,  it  would  be  deserved  as  a  censure 
were  the  figure  not  so  severely  accurate  in  the  reproduction  of  one  of 
Everett's  favorite  poses  and  gestures.  As  an  orator  Everett  was  essentially 
artificial  and  theatrical,  and  the  artist  in  representing  the  man  as  he 
appeared  in  what  he  and  his  admirers  regarded  as  his  best  moments, 
has  done  him  no  more  and  no  less  than  justice.  That  this  statue  is  an 
admirable  likeness  of  Edward  Everett  in  face  and  figure  is  not  denied 
by  any  one,  and  unless  the  orator's  character  has  been  greatly  misappre- 
hended by  a  majority  of  his  countrymen,  it  is  just  such  a  monument  as 
he  himself  would  have  chosen.  The  bronze  statue  of  George  Peabody  in 
London  is  as  quiet  and  unobtrusive  as  that  of  Edward  Everett  is  just 
the  contrary.  This  work,  in  fact,  if  it  is  open  to  any  censure  is  chargeable 
with  tameness.  The  philanthropist  is  represented  as  seated  in  a  large 
chair — too  large  a  chair,  for  it  very  unnecessarily  gives  an  appearance  of 
clumsiness  to  the  whole  work — and,  as  in  the  case  of  Everett,  the  artist 
has  been  successful  in  giving  an  adequate  portrait  of  the  whole  man. 
While  this  work  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  masterpiece,  it  is  at  least  quite 
as  great  a  success  as  most  memorial  statues,  in  its  particular  style,  that 
have  been  made  in  our  day.  Our  artists  seem  to  be  able  to  win  success 
with  their  ideal  figures  in  sitting  postures,  but  for  some  reason  they  rarely 
manage  to  make  the  sitting  figures  in  their  monumental  works  truly 
imposing.  The  true  secret  of  the  non-success  of  this  particular  class  of 
works,  however,  appears  to  be  that  they  are  not  placed  under  cover.  This 
is  the  difficulty  with  Greenough's  Washington,  and  it  can  scarcely  be 
doubted,  that  were  it,  and  Rogers'  Lincoln,  and  Story's  Peabody  removed 


88 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


from  their  present  positions  in  the  open  air  and  made  accessories  to  the 
architecture  of  imposing  buildings,  they  would  gain  an  interest  and  an 
importance  which  they  do  not  now  have. 

Story's  most  famous  statue  is  his  Cleopatra.  It  is  the  most  famous, 
not  because  its  extraordinary  merits  have  forced  a  recognition  from  the 
multitude,  but,  because  it  had  the  good  fortune  to  fascinate  a  man  of 
rare  genius,  who,  in  a  sense,  appropriated  it  for  his  own  by  embodying 
a  eulogistic  description  of  it  in  one  of  his  best  known  and  most  widely 
read  books.  The  Cleopatra  has,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  never  been 
shown  to  the  public  except  at  the  Exhibition  of  1862,  and  at  the  sale 
of  the  collection  of  Mr.  John  Taylor  Johnston  of  New  York  in  1876. 
A  British  connoisseur  purchased  the  statue  at  the  Exhibition,  and  from 
his  hands  it  passed  to  those  of  Mr.  Johnston.  The  British  public,  which 
saw  this  statue  and  that  of  the  Libyan  Sibyl  at  the  Exhibition  of  1862, 
expected  to  find  in  them  extraordinary  qualities  and  aims,  if  not  absolute 
accomplishments,  which  would  suggest  the  performances  of  the  best  days 
of  the  renaissance.  The  Greek  Slave  of  Powers  was  not  an  unknown 
statue  when  the  Exhibition  of  185 1  opened,  for  it  had  been  seen  and 
admired  and  talked  about  by  a  great  number  of  persons,  but  it  was, 
nevertheless,  something  of  a  surprise  to  the  general  public,  and  the 
surprise  had  much  to  do  with  the  rather  extraordinary  sensation  which 
it  created.  The  Cleopatra  of  Story  was  not  a  surprise,  for  the  public 
mind  had  been  prepared  for  it,  and  the  public  curiosity  excited  with 
regard  to  it,  and  in  such  a  way  that  a  vast  majority  of  those  who  came  into 
its  presence  came  predisposed,  not  only  to  admire,  but  to  admire  extrava- 
gantly. Hawthorne  has  always  had  a  larger  audience  in  England  than 
he  has  had  in  his  own  land,  and  his  romance  of  The  Marble  Fawn, 
especially, — in  England  it  goes  under  the  title  of  Transformation — is 
esteemed  as  it  never  has  been  in  America,  where  it  is  not  regarded  by 


STORY. 


89 


discriminating  readers  as  its  author's  masterpiece.  It  is  in  the  Marble 
Fawn  that  Hawthorne  gives  the  description  of  the  Cleopatra  which  made 
it  famous  before  it  left  the  studio  of  the  artist,  and  which  has  caused  it 
to  figure  in  the  popular  imagination  as  Story's  most  important  and  most 
characteristic  work.  Hawthorne  looked  at  this  statue,  as  he  saw  it  in  the 
clay,  growing  day  by  day  nearer  to  perfection  under  the  fingers  of  the 
sculptor,  with  the  eyes  of  a  romancist  and  an  enthusiast  who  knew  next 
to  nothing  of  the  technicalities  of  plastic  art,  and  who  was  interested  only 
in  the  ideal  which  an  effort  was  being  made  to  give  palpable  form  and 
substance  to.  He  was  on  very  intimate  terms  with  Story  during  his  visit 
to  Rome,  and,  as  the  published  extracts  from  his  Note-Book  show,  was  a 
frequent  visitor  to  his  studio,  and  was,  from  his  first  sight  of  it,  strangely 
interested  in  this  particular  work.  The  Cleopatra  when  Hawthorne  first 
saw  it  was  in  a  peculiarly  interesting  stage.  It  was  just  sufficiently  far 
advanced  for  the  intentions  of  the  artist  to  be  distinctly  made  out,  and 
for  something  like  an  accurate  idea  to  be  formed  as  to  what  the  full 
expression  of  the  face  and  the  pose  would  be.  There  was,  however,  just 
enough  mystery  about  the  rough  clay,  which  had  only  partly  been  wrought 
into  shape,  to  set  the  imagination  to  work,  and  to  excite  speculations  as 
to  what  the  ultimate  result  would  be,  and  as  to  whether  the  artist  would 
succeed  in  making  the  statue  all  that  it  promised.  Before  Hawthorne 
left  Rome,  the  Cleopatra  was  finished  in  the  clay,  or  very  nearly  so,  and 
in  view  of  the  fascination  which  watching  the  progress  of  the  work  had 
for  him,  it  was  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  that  he  should  desire 
to  include  a  description  of  it  in  his  Roman  romance.  As  the  fame  of 
this  statue  is  so  largely  due  to  the  description  in  The  Marble  Fawn,  and 
as  it  has  never  been  photographed  nor  engraved,  we  cannot  do  better  than 
to  quote  the  passage  which  refers  to  it.  Hawthorne  in  his  preface  makes  a 
proper  acknowledgement  to  Story,  but  in  the  narrative  itself  he  assigns 
the  Cleopatra  to  his  imaginary  sculptor,  Kenyon.    The  visitor  to  Kenyon's 


9>o 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


studio,  for  whose  benefit  the  nearly  completed  clay  model  is  unveiled,  just 
before  the  artist  draws  away  the  wet  cloths  in  which  it  is  swathed,  expresses 
a  dread  lest  it  should  be  a  nude  figure,  which  rather  amusingly  reflects 
Hawthorne's  own  emotions  in  encountering  the  innumerable  undraped 
representatives  of  the  human  form  in  the  great  galleries  of  Europe.  The 
sculptor  explains  that  the  proprieties  have  all  been  observed,  and  also 
states  what  the  subject  is,  in  order  that  no  unpleasant  mistakes  may  be 
made,  and  then  comes  the  description  of  the  Cleopatra  as  the  eyes  of  the 
finest  and  most  imaginative  genius  that  American  literature  has  produced 
beheld  her: — 

"The  sitting  figure  of  a  woman  was  seen.  She  was  draped  from 
head  to  foot  in  a  costume  minutely  and  scrupulously  studied  from  that 
of  ancient  Egypt,  as  revealed  by  the  strange  sculpture  of  that  country,  its 
coins,  drawings,  painted  mummy-cases,  and  whatever  other  tokens  have 
been  dug  out  of  its  pyramids,  graves  and  catacombs.  Even  the  stiff 
Egyptian  head-dress  was  adhered  to,  but  had  been  softened  into  a  rich 
feminine  adornment,  without  losing  a  particle  of  its  truth.  Difficulties 
that  might  well  have  seemed  insurmountable,  had  been  courageously 
encountered  and  made  flexible  to  purposes  of  grace  and  dignity;  so  that 
Cleopatra  sat  attired  in  a  garb  proper  to  her  historic  and  queenly  state, 
as  a  daughter  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  yet  such  as  the  beautiful  woman 
would  have  put  on  as  best  adapted  to  heighten  the  magnificence  of  her 
charms,  and  kindle  a  tropic  fire  in  the  cold  eyes  of  Octavius. 

"A  marvellous  repose — that  rare  merit  in  statuary,  except  it  be  the 
lumpish  repose  native  to  the  block  of  stone — was  diffused  through  the 
figure.  The  spectator  felt  that  Cleopatra  had  sunk  down  out  of  the  fever 
and  turmoil  of  her  life,  and  for  one  instant — as  it  were,  between  two 
pulse-throbs — had  relinquished  all   activity,  and  was  resting  throughout 


STORY. 


91 


every  vein  and  muscle.  It  was  the  repose  of  despair,  indeed ;  for  Octavius 
had  seen  her,  and  remained  insensible  to  her  enchantments.  But  still 
there  was  a  great  smouldering  furnace  deep  down  in  the  woman's  heart. 
The  repose,  no  doubt,  was  as  complete  as  if  she  were  never  to  stir  hand 
or  foot  again ;  and  yet,  such  was  the  creature's  latent  energy  and  fierceness, 
she  might  spring  upon  you  like  a  tigress,  and  stop  the  very  breath  that 
you  were  now  drawing  midway  in  your  throat. 

"The  face  was  a  miraculous  success.  The  sculptor  had  not  shunned 
to  give  the  full  Nubian  lips,  and  other  characteristics  of  the  Egyptian 
physiognomy.  His  courage  and  integrity  had  been  abundantly  rewarded ; 
for  Cleopatra's  beauty  shone  out  richer,  warmer,  more  triumphantly  beyond 
comparison,  than  if,  shrinking  timidly  from  the  truth  he  had  chosen  the 
tame  Grecian  type.  The  expression  was  of  profound,  gloomy,  heavily 
revolving  thought;  a  glance  into  her  past  life  and  present  emergencies, 
while  her  spirit  gathered  itself  up  for  some  new  struggle,  or  was  getting 
sternly  reconciled  to  impending  doom.  In  one  view,  there  was  a  certain 
softness  and  tenderness — how  breathed  into  the  statue,  among  so  many 
strong  and  passionate  elements,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  Catching  another 
glimpse,  you  beheld  her  as  implacable  as  a  stone  and  cruel  as  fire. 

"  In  a  word,  all  Cleopatra — fierce,  voluptuous,  passionate,  tender,  wicked, 
terrible,  and  full  of  poisonous  and  rapturous  enchantment — was  kneaded 
into  what,  only  a  week  or  two  before,  had  been  a  lump  of  wet  clay  from 
the  Tiber.  Soon,  apotheosized  in  an  indestructible  material,  she  would 
be  one  of  the  images  that  men  keep  forever,  finding  a  heat  in  them  which 
does  not  cool  down,  throughout  the  centuries." 

The  most  remarkable  thing  about  this  masterly  piece  of  word-painting 
is  that  Hawthorne  appears  not  to  have  been  aware  that  Cleopatra  was  of 


92 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


Greek  lineage.  The  sculptor,  doubtless,  was  aware  of  the  fact,  and  decided 
on  easily  defensible  artistic  grounds,  to  give  his  statue  the  Nubian  lips 
and  Egyptian  physiognomy  which  seem  to  have  so  impressed  Hawthorne. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Cleopatra  had  an  aquiline  nose  and  a  rounded  and 
prominent  chin — a  physiognomy  of  the  Roman  rather  than  of  the  Greek  type. 

There  is  much  in  this  description  by  Hawthorne  of  the  Cleopatra, 
which  will  apply  to  the  companion  statue  of  the  Libyan  Sibyl,  of  which 
we  give  an  engraving.  This  weird  woman  of  mystery,  the  child  of  the 
desert,  it  is  true  is  not  a  "serpent  of  old  Nile,"  but  there  is  about  her 
much  of  that  pent-up  fiery  energy,  threatening  to  burst  forth  at  any 
moment  to  scorch  and  consume,  which  marks  the  Cleopatra.  The  mission 
of  the  Sibyl,  however,  is  not  to  lure  men  on  to  destruction — she  is  the 
custodian  of  secrets,  the  secrets  of  Africa  and  the  African  race.  And,  how 
close  she  keeps  them,  with  her  locked  lower  limbs,  her  one  hand  pressing 
her  chin  as  if  to  keep  in  the  torrent  of  words  that  threaten  to  burst  forth, 
while  the  other  grasps  a  scroll  covered  with  strange  characters,  which 
would  reveal  much  could  we  be  permitted  to  decipher  it.  On  her  head 
is  the  Ammonite  horn — for  she  is  a  daughter  of  Jupiter  Ammon,  and  the 
keeper  of  his  oracles — and  on  her  breast  is  the  ancient  symbol  of  mystery, 
as  she  sits  there  brooding  and  thinking,  and  her  breast  heaving  with 
emotions  as  she  thinks  of  what  is  past  and  what  is  to  come.  It  is  worth 
while,  in  looking  at  this  figure,  to  recall  the  fact  that  while  the  sculptor 
was  in  the  act  of  creating  it  Africa  was  giving  up  her  ancient  secrets;  the 
world-old  mystery  of  the  Nile  was  being  revealed,  and  the  heart  of  the 
great  continent  was  being  penetrated  in  every  direction  by  explorers  who 
were  anxious  to  tell  the  world  all  that  it  contained.  The  mystery  of  the 
future  of  the  African  race  ? — that  is  as  great  a  mystery  as  ever. 

A  considerable  number  of  Story's  most  important  works  are  of  the 


S7  ORY. 


93 


same  genre  as  the  Cleopatra  and  the  Sibyl.  Both  power  and  subtlety 
are  imperatively  demanded  in  statues  which  shall  be  even  suggestions  of 
such  men  as  Saul  and  Moses,  or  such  women  as  Judith,  Sappho,  Delilah 
and  Medea,  or  which  shall  adequately  symbolize  Jerusalem  mourning  over 
her  fallen  greatness,  or  which  shall  rise  above  the  level  of  mere  prettiness 
in  dealing  with  such  a  subject  as  Love  questioning  the  Sphynx.  These 
themes  prove,  of  themselves,  that  the  sculptor  has  aimed  high,  and  if  he 
has  at  times  failed  to  realize  his  own  ideals,  his  successes  have  been 
sufficiently  frequent  to  gain  for  him  a  position  altogether  apart  from  the 
majority  of  his  contemporaries. 

It  was  during  the  progress  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition  of  1876,  in 
Philadelphia,  that  the  American  public  was  first  afforded  a  reasonably 
good  opportunity  of  forming  an  estimate  of  this  artist's  merits.  His  Medea 
— which  is  very  adequately  represented  by  our  engraving — was  shown  in 
the  Exhibition,  while  his  Jerusalem  was  to  be  seen  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  it  having  been  presented  to  that  institution 
a  short  time  before  the  opening  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  by  Mrs. 
N.  Grigg,  of  Philadelphia.  In  the  Jerusalem  the  idea  which  the  sculptor 
had  in  his  mind  is,  perhaps,  clearly  enough  expressed,  but  the  statue  is 
certainly  not  a  pleasing  one.  There  is  a  stiffness  and  a  total  lack  of 
grace  in  the  lines  of  the  figure  for  which  there  is  no  reason  and  no 
excuse.  The  Medea  is  far  more  satisfying,  although  in  looking  at  this 
statue,  the  question  involuntarily  arises,  why,  if  the  sculptor  violated  history 
in  giving  his  Cleopatra  Nubian  features,  did  he  not  adhere  to  tradition 
in  representing  the  Colchian  sorceress  as  other  than  a  Greek?  For  a 
Greek  this  beautiful  woman  with  the  beetling  brows  and  the  dagger  in 
her  hand  assuredly  is,  and  she  might  better  be  called  Clytemnestra,  or 
Phaedra,  or  the  Tragic  Muse,  than  Medea  the  barbarian,  whom  Jason 
discarded,  and  who  revenged  herself  upon  him  with  the  blood  of  her 


94 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


own  children.  Beautiful  as  the  face  of  this  woman  with  the  knitted  fore- 
head and  tortured  brain  may  be,  it  is  not  that  of  such  a  Medea  as  is 
revealed  to  us  in  the  acting  of  those  great  histrionic  artists,  Adelaide 
Ristori  or  Fanny  Janauschek — for,  different  as  are  the  methods  of  these 
actresses,  they  have  neither  of  them  been  able  to  conceive  of  a  Medea 
who,  in  appearance  and  character,  did  not  mark  the  width  of  the  gulf 
between  barbarian  and  Greek  civilization,  between  the  sorceress  and  the 
Greek  horror  of  sorcery. 

While  most  of  Story's  works  have  been  cast  in  a  heroic  mould,  he 
has  sculptured  several  statues,  such  as  an  Infant  Bacchus  and  Panther, 
and  a  Little  Red  Riding  Hood,  which  address  themselves  without  reserve 
to  unheroic  sympathies.  An  equestrian  statue  of  Colonel  Shaw,  the  hero 
of  Fort  Wayne,  which  was  executed  for  the  city  of  Boston,  and  a  full-length 
of  Josiah  Quincy  are  noteworthy  examples  of  his  present  statues.  His 
busts  of  the  poets  Shelley  and  Keats  are  not  so  much  attempts  at 
portraiture  as  they  are  idealizations  in  the  same  sense  that  his  Cleopatra 
and  his  Sappho  are.  The  Shelley  is  a  purely  ideal  work — that  is,  the 
sculptor  did  not  make  any  attempt  to  follow  the  meagre  and  amateurish 
pencil  sketch  of  the  poet's  profile,  which  is  the  only  authentic  portrait  of 
him  in  existence ;  the  Keats,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  true  portrait,  although 
an  idealized  one.  This  is  chiefly  based  on  the  recently  recovered  death- 
bed study  of  the  features  of  Keats,  which  was  made  by  his  friend,  the 
American  artist  Severn,  while  in  attendance  on  him  during  his  last  hours. 
These  two  busts  have  been  warmly  praised  by  those  who  have  been  fortunate 
enough  to  see  them,  and  pronounced  among  the  most  masterly  of  Story's 
performances.  At  this  writing,  Story  is  engaged  on  a  national  monument  to 
be  erected  in  Independence  Square,  Philadelphia.  It  is  a  colossal  statue  of 
a  female  figure  personifying  Liberty,  which  is  to  be  mounted  upon  a  pedestal 
enriched  with  figures  in  high  relief  representing  the  States  of  the  Union 


S7  OA')'. 


95 


Story  was  born  at  Salem,  Massachusetts,  February  12,  1819.  He  was 
a  man  of  mature  years  and  of  some  celebrity  when  he  decided  to  abandon 
the  profession  of  the  law,  to  which  he  had  been  educated,  for  art.  To 
the  study  and  practice  of  art  he  brought  a  cultivated  mind  and  a  fervid 
imagination;  and,  being  a  man  of  wealth,  as  well  as  of  liberal  education 
and  large  culture,  is  more  fortunate  than  many  of  his  artistic  brethren  in 
being  spared  the  necessity  of  executing  crude  and  immature  works,  or  of 
lowering  his  artistic  standard  to  suit  the  whims  and  caprices  of  purchasers. 


CHAPTER  V. 


ROBERTS,  B  A  ILLY,  HARNISCH  AND  RUSH 


ERHAPS  the  realists  and  the  idealists,  if  they  were  to  compare 
notes  instead  of  abusing  each  other,  and  were  to  come  down 
to  exact  definitions  of  terms,  would  discover  that  true  realism 
and  true  idealism  are  not  so  wide  apart  as  they  think  they  are.  Many 
who  pride  themselves  on  being  realists  fail  altogether  to  understand  what 
artistic  realism  is,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  those  who  shut  their  eyes  to 
the  truths  of  nature,  in  the  hope  and  expectation  that  some  inner  light 
will  guide  their  hands  in  the  painting  of  a  picture  or  the  sculpturing  of  a 
statue,  are  following  a  false  and  treacherous  guide  that  will  be  apt  to  lead 
them  into  bogs  and  quagmires  which  will  overwhelm  them  and  their 
hopes.  Much  of  what  passes  for  realism  in  art  in  their  days  is  simply 
not  realism  at  all,  and  represents  nothing  but  grossly  mistaken  aims  and 
radical  misapprehensions  as  to  the  varied  but  limited  possibilities  of  the 
pictorial  and  plastic  arts.  Much  of  that  which  passes  for  idealism  is  but 
the  crude  presentation  of  crude  and  half-formed  ideas,  and  the  pretence 
of  attempting  to  represent  something  above  and  beyond  nature,  is  made 
to  serve  as  an  apology  for  thoroughly  unworkmanlike  performances. 

A  painter  or  a  sculptor  cannot  represent  with  the  material  at  his 

96 


ILiA  PREMIERE  POSE 


ROBERTS,  B  A  ILLY,  HARNISCH  AND  RUSH. 


97 


command  all  that  there  is  in  a  particular  object  that  he  may  choose  for 
his  model,  and  he  consequently  finds  himself  compelled,  if  he  would 
adequately  represent  such  facts  as  are  within  the  range  of  his  art,  to  make 
some  compromises.  For  instance,  a  painter  who  wishes  to  depict  on  his 
canvas  a  scene  or  object  which  may  strike  his  fancy,  must  place  himself 
at  such  a  distance  from  it  that  he  can  at  one  glance  take  in  the  whole 
subject.  At  such  a  distance  it  will  be  impossible  for  him  to  see  every 
minute  detail,  and  even  many  of  the  details  which  he  will  see  will  not  be 
essential  to  the  effect,  considered  as  a  whole.  That  is,  he  will  find  the 
objects  dividing  themselves  into  masses  of  light  and  shade  and  color,  and 
if  he  accurately  represents  these  masses  upon  his  canvas  he  will  have  a 
reasonably  satisfactory  picture,  even  if  he  pays  no  attention  to  the  smaller 
details.  Obviously  the  principle  of  working  by  masses  can  be  carried 
much  too  far,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  often  is  carried  too  far;  but  the 
"  impressionists,"  as  a  certain  modern  school  of  French  painters,  who  seek 
to  depict  only  the  casual  impressions  which  nature  makes  through  hasty 
glances  of  the  eye,  really  come  much  nearer  to  a  satisfactory  description 
of  nature  than  do  the  men  who  endeavor  to  paint  every  vein  on  a  leaf, 
for  the  veins  on  a  leaf  contribute  little  or  nothing  towards  pictorial  effect. 
A  genuine  realist  is  one  who  accurately  and  relentlessly  copies  so  much 
of  what  he  sees  in  nature  as  properly  comes  within  the  range  of  his  art. 
An  idealist  is  one  who  uses  nature  as  a  medium  for  the  fixing  of  the 
coinings  of  his  brain  in  a  palpable  shape,  but  to  do  this  he  must  have 
the  facts  of  nature  at  his  finger's  ends,  for  one  ignorant  of  these  facts 
is  not  competent  to  go  beyond  them  in  expressing  what  he  is  pleased 
to  call  his  ideas. 

The  controversy  between  the  realists  and  the  idealists  is  quite  a 
modern  affair,  and  it  is  distinctly  a  modern  notion  that  the  poetry  or  the 
ideality  of  a  subject  will  excuse  bad  workmanship  or  a  lack  of  knowledge 


9s 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


and  genuine  culture  on  the  part  of  the  artist.  All  the  master  artists  of 
the  great  eras  of  art,  so  far  as  they  have  given  utterance  to  opinions  or 
precepts  with  regard  to  the  principles  and  practices  of  art,  have  insisted 
upon  the  study,  and  the  incessant  study,  of  Nature  as  the  one  thing 
needful,  not  only  for  the  beginner  but  also  for  the  educated  practitioner. 
Leonardo  de  Vinci,  an  idealist  among  the  idealists,  in  that  curious  collection 
of  memoranda  which  was  made  up  long  after  his  death  from  his  multitude 
of  note-books,  and  was  published  under  the  title  of  Trattato  della  Pittura, 
insists  strenuously  upon  the  close  and  constant  study  of  nature,  and  says 
not  a  word  about  idealism,  about  the  soul  of  art  being  of  more  importance 
than  the  substance,  or  any  one  of  many  notions  of  that  kind  which  the 
art  student,  the  artist  and  the  art  connoisseur  has  constantly  dinned  into 
his  ears  in  those  days.     Leonardo  gives  this  advice  to  painters: — 

"And  you,  painter,  who  are  desirous  of  great  practice,  understand, 
that  if  you  do  not  rest  on  the  good  foundation  of  nature,  you  will  labor 
with  little  honor  and  less  profit;  and  if  you  do  it  on  a  good  ground,  your 
works  will  be  many  and  good,  to  your  great  honor  and  advantage. 

"A  painter  ought  to  study  universal  nature,  and  reason  much  within 
himself  on  all  he  sees,  making  use  of  the  most  excellent  parts  that 
compose  the  species  of  every  object  before  him.  His  mind  will  by  this 
method  be  like  a  mirror,  reflecting  truly  every  object  placed  before  it, 
and  become,  as  it  were,  a  second  nature. 

"One  painter  ought  never  to  imitate  the  manner  of  any  other; 
because  in  that  case  he  cannot  be  called  the  child  of  nature,  but  the 
grand-child.  It  is  always  best  to  have  recourse  to  nature,  which  is  replete 
with  .an  abundance  of  objects,  than  to  the  productions  of  other  masters, 
who  learnt  everything  from  her. 


ROBERTS,  BAILLY,  HARNISCH  AND  RUSH. 


99 


"Whoever  flatters  himself  that  he  can  retain  in  his  memory  all  the 
effects  of  nature,  is  deceived,  for  our  memory  is  not  so  capacious ;  there- 
fore, consult  nature  in  everything." 

These  precepts  are  worthy  of  being  printed  in  large  letters  and  hung 
on  the  walls  of  every  art  academy,  and  if  art  students  could  be  made  at 
the  very  outset  to  learn  them  by  heart,  and  to  grasp  their  full  meaning, 
the  world  would  be  spared  the  infliction  of  a  multitude  of  bad  paintings 
and  bad  statuary.  The  example  of  men  of  the  enormous  learning  and 
indefatigable  research  and  almost  unbounded  genius  of  Leonardo  de  Vinci, 
Michael  Angelo  and  Raphael  in  forcing  nature  to  be  their  servant  rather 
than  their  mistress,  and  in  using  with  the  freedom  of  masters  the  facts 
of  nature  in  order  to  more  completely  express  what  they  had  in  their 
minds,  has  deluded  innumerable  modern  artists  into  the  belief  that  accurate 
knowledge  is  something  that  one  who  has  ideas — or  who  fancies  that  he 
has  them — can  safely  dispense  with.  All  that  these  great  artists  accomplished 
they  accomplished  by  means  of  their  knowledge,  gained  at  the  expense 
of  great  labor  and  study,  and  it  is  an  absurdity  for  men  of  lesser 
attainments,  no  matter  what  their  natural  abilities  may  be,  to  think  of 
rivalling  them. 

It  is  the  great  glory  of  French  art  of  the  present  day  that  it  is  based 
on  close,  persistent  and  indefatigable  study  of  nature.  It  is  this,  more 
than  any  superior  natural  aptitude,  that  has  given  the  French  painters 
and  sculptors,  and  art  workers  generally,  the  pre-eminence  they  enjoy. 
Their  theory  simply  is,  that  if  a  man  has  training,  and  the  abundant 
knowledge  that  training  brings  with  it,  he  will  be  able  to  give  expression 
to  his  ideas,  if  he  has  any,  and  that,  if  a  man  has  not  training  he  will 
not  be  able  to  express  his  ideas  in  any  but  a  crude  and  imperfect  manner, 
no  matter   how  quick   his   brain  may  be  in   conceiving   them.     In  the 


lOO 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


Centennial  Exhibition,  the  display  of  French  sculptures  was  not  by  any 
means  what  it  might  or  should  have  been,  as  a  number  of  the  strongest 
men  were  unrepresented.  In  no  other  department,  however,  were  there 
so  many  works  as  in  the  French,  which  seemed  to  be  animated  by  the 
free  antique  spirit,  while  not  in  any  way  suggesting  imitation  of  the 
antique.  In  the  United  States  Department  there  was  no  piece  of  sculpture 
which  was  marked  by  such  high  technical  qualities  as  the  Premiere  Pose 
of  Howard  Roberts — a  work  which  was  almost  as  much  a  product  of  the 
schools  of  Paris  as  the  admirable  performances  exhibited  in  the  French 
Department. 

It  would  not  be  doing  justice  to  this  beautiful  statue  to  intimate  that 
its  merits  are  exclusively  of  a  technical  character,  that  the  artist  has  not 
done  full  justice  to  his  subject  as  a  subject,  or  that  it  is  only  worthy  of 
admiration  as  a  piece  of  skillful  workmanship.  The  subject  is  a  young 
woman  preparing  to  pose  undraped,  for  the  first  time,  in  a  painter's  studio, 
and  the  sculptor  has  indicated  his  own  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  the 
situation  has  both  a  comic  and  a  tragic  side,  by  the  grotesque  comic  and 
tragic  marks  which  he  has  added  as  decorations  to  the  uprights  of  the 
back  of  the  chair.  As  for  the  figure  of  the  shrinking  girl,  it  is  full  of 
pathos  and  full  of  infinite  grace,  despite  the  constrained  attitude  which  she 
assumes  as  she  crouches  in  her  chair  and  shrinks  from  observation.  This 
figure,  however,  is  such  an  absolute  triumph  over  a  great  number  of 
technical  difficulties  that  it  is  particularly  well  worthy  of  consideration  for 
its  technical  qualities  alone.  Its  striking  and  peculiar  merits  could  only 
have  been  achieved  by  a  man  who  understood  the  human  figure  thoroughly, 
and  who  had  gained  his  knowledge  of  it,  not  from  the  works  of  other 
men,  but  from  a  close  and  laborious  study  of  nature.  They  assuredly 
could  not  have  been  achieved  by  one  who  depended  chiefly  on  some  real 
or  fancied  inner  light  rather  than  upon  absolute  knowledge.    From  what- 


ROBERTS,  B  A  ILLY,  HARNISCII  AND  RUSH. 


101 


ever  point  of  view  this  statue  is  observed,  it  is  graceful,  and  to  secure 
a  harmony  of  lines  along  with  such  a  complex  attitude,  was  in  itself  an 
achievement  of  the  first  artistic  importance.  But,  the  lifting  of  an  arm 
over  the  head  so  as  to  partly  shield  the  face,  the  bending  of  the  other 
arm  for  the  purpose  of  grasping  at  the  loose  drapery  with  which  the  chair 
is  covered,  the  peculiar  twist  of  the  body,  and  the  pressure  of  the  legs 
against  the  lower  part  of  the  chair,  all  give  emphasis  to  the  muscular  and 
other  markings  of  the  figure  in  such  a  way  that  the  artist,  in  working  out 
his  problem,  must  have  found  the  gulf  between  absolute  success  and  total 
failure  a  very  wide  one.  As  will  be  seen  by  a  reference  to  the  engraving, 
the  artist  has  marked  with  much  emphasis  as  well  as  much  delicacy  the 
great  variety  of  muscular  movements  with  which  he  has  to  deal.  The 
engraving,  indeed,  can  give  but  a  faint  idea  of  the  beauty  of  some  portions 
of  the  work,  as,  for  instance,  the  delicate  markings  of  the  flexions  of  the 
knees,  or  of  the  junction  of  the  right  arm  with  the  shoulder.  The  work- 
manship, however,  is  so  fine  throughout  that  it  would  be  an  almost 
endless  task  to  attempt  a  detailed  analysis  of  it,  and  as  the  engraving 
will  speak  for  the  statue  better  than  any  written  description  can,  we  will 
pass  to  a  mention  of  other  works  of  the  artist. 

Howard  Roberts  was  born  in  Philadelphia  in  1843.  He  studied  in 
the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  and  was  for  some  little  time 
under  the  instruction  of  J.  A.  Bailly.  In  1866  he  went  to  Paris  for  the 
purpose  of  completing  his  artistic  education,  and  remained  there  for  several 
years  as  a  student  in  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts,  and  in  the  ateliers  of 
MM.  Gumery  and  Dumont.  Both  of  these  eminent  French  sculptors 
took  a  very  lively  interest  in  him,  and  to  their  instructions  he  doubtless 
owes  much. 

On  his  return  to  America  he  modelled  several  ideal  busts,  and  these 


102 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


being  successful  he  attempted  a  full  length  figure.  This  was  a  statuette, 
about  three  feet  in  height,  of  Hester  Prynne,  the  heroine  of  Hawthorne's 
romance  of  The  Scarlet  Letter.  This  represented  Hester,  with  her  babe 
in  her  arms  and  the  scarlet  letter,  which  the  stern  puritanism  of  her  age 
decreed  that  she  should  carry  about  with  her  as  a  punishment  for  her 
offence,  upon  her  bosom,  standing  on  the  pillory.  The  extraordinary 
merits  of  this  work,  which  interpreted  all  the  pathos  of  the  subject,  were 
acknowledged  without  reserve  by  all  who  saw  it,  and  the  reputation  of 
the  sculptor  was  at  once  established.  After  the  completion  of  the  Hester 
Prynne,  Roberts  made  a  number  of  portrait  and  ideal  busts,  the  most 
important  of  these  being  one  in  which  the  arms  were  introduced,  repre- 
senting Owen  Meredith's  Lucile,  and  also  employed  himself  on  a  full 
length  life-size  statue  of  Hypatia.  When  the  clay  model  of  this  had 
been  completed  and  cast  in  plaster,  he  decided  to  return  to  Europe.  It 
was  in  1873  that  he  once  more  took  up  his  residence  in  Paris,  and  it 
was  while  there  that  he  completed  the  Premiere  Pose.  Roberts  this  time 
remained  abroad  about  a  year,  and  on  his  return  to  Philadelphia  he 
established  himself  in  a  beautiful  and  commodious  studio,  where  he  devoted 
himself  to  bust-making,  to  the  modelling  of  a  statuette — about  the  size 
of  the  Hester  Prynne — of  Lot's  Wife,  and  to  putting  his  Hypatia  in  marble. 

The  merely  technical  merits  of  the  Hypatia  are  as  great  as  those 
of  the  Premiere  Pose,  but  the  subject  is  such  a  striking  one,  and  it  is 
treated  in  such  a  powerful  and  effective  manner  that  the  statue  demands 
to  be  judged  on  other  and  higher  than  technical  grounds.  This  work 
was,  after  being  completed  in  marble,  put  on  public  exhibition  for  a  short 
time,  and  was  visited  by  many  thousands  of  persons.  There  was  but 
one  verdict  with  regard  to  it,  and  that  was  that  it  was  the  most  impressive 
piece  of  sculpture  that  had  been  shown  in  Philadelphia  for  many  years. 
This  admirable  statue  increased  the  fame  of  Roberts  even  more  than  the 


ROBERTS,  D A  ILLY, 


HARNISCH  AND  RUSH. 


103 


Premiere  Pose  did,  for  it  appealed  to  a  wider  range  of  tastes,  and  a 
different  order  of  sympathies.  In  it  the  beautiful  Alexandrian  Greek — the 
last  of  the  pagans — is  shown  as  turning  at  bay  on  the  altar  of  the  church 
into  which  she  has  been  driven  by  the  fanatical  monks  who  are  thirsting 
for  her  blood.  The  motion  of  turning  is  very  finely  expressed — to  mention 
one  striking  point  of  technical  excellence — and  the  hunted  woman  faces 
her  savage  pursuers  with  mingled  indignation,  disgust  and  despair  on  her 
face,  as  with  one  hand  she  clasps  her  tattered  draperies  to  her  breast  and 
with  the  other  half  supports  herself  by  means  of  one  of  the  candlesticks 
of  the  altar.  Fine  as  this  powerful  performance  is  throughout,  the  face 
is  particularly  worthy  of  admiration.  It  is  a  purely  Greek  face  in  type, 
and  yet  there  is  no  Greek  statue  we  know  of  that  is  marked  by  a  strong 
individuality — by  what  we  moderns  call  character — to  the  extent  that  this 
one  is. 

The  statuette  of  Lot's  Wife  is  a  very  singular  creation,  which  could 
only  have  been  imagined  by  the  artist  in  a  grotesque  mood.  It  cannot 
be  called  beautiful,  but  it  is  most  original  in  conception  and  execution, 
and,  in  spite  of  its  grotesqueness,  it  is  full  of  power  and  impressiveness. 
The  woman  is  represented  in  a  writhing  attitude,  and  she  is  not  only  being 
enveloped  in  the  crystals  of  salt  which  are  forming  around  her,  but  she 
is  actually  dissolving  into  salt  herself.-  The  idea  of  transformation  is  very 
much  more  perfectly  expressed  in  this  statuette  than  it  is  in  Bernini's 
Daphne,  or  in  any  attempts  to  represent  metamorphosis  that  we  know  of. 
Lot's  wife  is  really  turning  into  a  pillar  of  salt,  and,  admitting  that  the 
idea  of  such  a  transformation  is  a  rather  queer  one  for  a  sculptor  to 
choose,  we  must  also  admit  that  it  is  expressed  with  remarkable  skill. 

Roberts'  busts  are  charming,  those  representing  childhood  and 
womanhood  especially.     His  ideal  busts  are  the  inspirations  of  a  most 


io4 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


rare  fancy,  while  his  portraits  have  that  inestimable  quality  in  all  portraits 
of  showing  their  subjects  at  their  best,  while  losing  nothing  of  resemblance. 
Much  of  the  charm  of  his  busts  is  due  to  his  refined  taste  and  rich 
invention  in  the  treatment  of  the  hair  and  draperies,  and  about  each  new 
one  that  he  models  there  is  something  fresh,  original  and  fascinating; 
even  more,  however,  is  due  to  a  feeling  for  color  which  is  rare  with 
sculptors,  and  which  induces  him  to  manage  his  work  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  at  least  suggest  color  by  giving  full  value  not  only  to  masses  but 
to  individual  points  of  shadow.  Had  he  become  a  painter  instead  of  a 
sculptor,  he  certainly  would  have  gained  repute  as  a  colorist,  for  there  are 
very  few  artists  who  are  more  sensitive  to  the  subtle  charms  of  color,  and 
this  sensitiveness  shows  itself  in  all  his  performances. 

Joseph  A.  Bailly,  who  has  been  practicing  the  art  of  sculpture  in 
Philadelphia  for  a  number  of  years,  is  a  Frenchman  by  birth.  He  was 
originally  a  wood-carver,  and  in  view  of  the  revival  of  public  interest  in 
the  long-time  neglected  art  of  wood-carving,  it  is  a  matter  for  some  regret 
that  so  talented  and  able  a  workman  should  have  abandoned  it,  even  for 
an  art  that  is  supposed  to  demand  a  wider  range  of  powers.  His  work 
as  a  carver  was  of  a  high  order  of  merit,  and  when  he  decided  to  devote 
himself  to  sculpture  he  brought  to  the  practice  of  that  art  a  very  thorough 
training  of  a  peculiarly  effective  kind.  Bailly  is  a  very  rapid  and  very 
indefatigable  worker,  and  he  has  turned  out  of  his  studio  an  enormous 
number  of  busts  and  statues,  in  bronze  and  marble,  which  deal  with  all 
manner  of  subjects  capable  of  sculpturesque  treatment,  and  many  of  which 
are  works  of  much  importance.  The  half  life-size  statue  of  Spring  which 
is  represented  by  the  engraving  on  our  title  page,  was  one  of  his  con- 
tributions to  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  and  is  a  very  favorable  example 
of  his  graceful  and  fanciful  treatment  of  ideal  themes.  This  pretty  little 
statue  of  Spring  trailing  her  flower-bedecked  robe  on  the  earth,  with  its 


ROBERTS,  B  A  ILLY,  HARNISCH  AND  RUSH. 


tender  and  flowing  lines,  is  as  opposite  in  style  and  subject  as  can  be  to 
such  masculine  works  as  the  equestrian  statue  of  President  Guzman  Blanco 
ol  Venezuela,  which  stood  in  the  rotunda  of  Memorial  Hall  during  the 
progress  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  the  colossal  statue  of  Witherspoon 
in  Fairmount  Park,  or  the  dignified  Washington  in  front  of  Independence 
Hall.  The  equestrian  statue  of  President  Blanco  was  only  a  portion  of 
an  important  order  which  Bailly  received  from  the  Venezuelan  government. 
In  addition  to  this  he  made  a  colossal  statue  of  the  same  statesman,  and 
it  is  worth  mentioning  as  an  evidence  of  his  rapidity,  that  although  the 
time  given  him  for  the  completion  of  these  two  difficult  works  was  very 
short— so  short  that  few  sculptors  would  have  cared  to  execute  the  com- 
mission— both  statues  were  finished  and  in  their  places  in  the  city  of  Caracas 
a  number  of  weeks  before  the  date  called  for  in  the  contract.  These 
statues  gave  great  satisfaction  to  the  Venezuelan  authorities  and  citizens, 
and  the  sculptor  was  warmly  congratulated  for  having  contributed  such 
imposing  ornaments  to  the  public  places  of  their  capital  city.  Bailly's  most 
important  ideal  works  in  marble  are  companion  groups  entitled  The  First 
Prayer,  and  Paradise  Lost,  which  represent  our  first  parents  in  their  days 
of  innocence  and  after  the  fall.  These  are  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Henry 
C.  Gibson,  of  Philadelphia.  Among  the  noteworthy  portrait  busts  modelled 
by  him,  are  those  of  General  Grant  and  General  Meade ;  he  has  also  made 
models  for  equestrian  statues  of  these  distinguished  soldiers.  Since  the 
Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  has  resumed  its  operations  in  the 
magnificent  new  building  at  Broad  and  Cherry  Streets,  Philadelphia,  Bailly 
has  filled  the  position  of  its  Professor  of  Sculpture. 

Albert  E.  Harnisch,  a  young  Philadelphian  of  German  parentage,  like 
Howard  Roberts,  received  instructions  from  Bailly,  and  like  him  was  one 
of  a  small  but  enthusiastic  band  of  students,  which  day  after  day  and  night 
after  night  gathered  in  the  rather  cramped  and  dismal  quarters  assigned 


io6 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


to  the  modelling  class  in  the  old  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  on  Chestnut 
Street.  Harnisch  from  the  very  first  showed  extraordinary  talent.  When 
a  mere  boy  he  modelled,  and  afterwards  himself  cut  in  marble  a  statue 
of  Cupid,  which  won  the  heartiest  commendation  of  the  most  judicious 
judges.  This  figure — the  original  model  of  which  is  in  possession  of  the 
Philadelphia  Sketch  Club — is  especially  noteworthy  on  account  of  the 
originality  of  the  pose  and  the  singular  grace  and  sweetness  of  the  face 
and  figure.  The  modelling  is  crude,  and,  that  the  sculptor  lacked  knowledge 
is  plain  enough  to  the  critical  eye,  but,  after  all  allowances  for  defects  are 
made,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  work  is  exceedingly  beautiful, 
and  that  its  execution  by  so  young  a  man  as  Harnisch,  was  a  very 
remarkable  performance  indeed.  Soon  after  the  completion  of  this  Cupid, 
Harnisch  modelled  a  Wandering  Psyche,  a  Love  in  Idleness,  companion 
pieces  entitled  The  Little  Protector  and  The  Little  Hunter,  a  Narrahmattah 
from  Cooper's  Wept  of  the  Wish-ton-Wish,  a  model  for  a  Lincoln 
Monument,  a  number  of  ideal  and  portrait  busts  and  several  bas-reliefs. 
These  works  were  all  of  them  distinguished  by  great  fertility  of  invention 
and  a  peculiarly  refined  and  graceful  fancy,  and  the  praise  bestowed  upon 
them  was  so  cordial  that  the  artist  was  persuaded  by  his  friends  to  go 
to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  perfecting  himself  in  his  art.  He  has  now 
been  a  resident  of  Rome  for  several  years,  and  is  rapidly  taking  his  place 
in  the  front  rank  of  the  American  sculptors  stationed  there.  The  most 
important  of  the  works  executed  by  him  in  Rome  is  an  elaborate  com- 
position representing  a  boy  robbing  an  Eagle's  nest.  Photographs  of 
this,  taken  from  three  different  points  of  view,  which  have  been  sent  to 
America  indicate  that  the  sculptor  is  in  a  fair  way  to  realize  all  the  high 
expectations  that  have  been  formed  with  regard  to  him.  Both  the 
venturesome  boy  and  the  angry  bird  are  modelled  with  great  freedom, 
and  are  full  of  life  and  vigor,  and  the  work  as  a  whole  is  marked  by 
high  qualities  of  excellence. 


ROBERTS,  BAILLY,  HARNJSCJf  AND  RUSH. 


A  chapter  devoted  to  eminent  Philadelphia  sculptors  in  a  work  like 
this  would  obviously  not  be  complete  without  a  mention  of  William  Rush, 
the  first  American  sculptor,  and  a  true  artist.  Were  it  not  that  Rush  was 
without  any  immediate  following,  and  that  it  was  not  until  after  his  death 
that  sculpture  began  to  be  practiced  to  any  considerable  extent  by  artists 
of  American  birth,  he  would  be  entitled  to  the  distinction  of  being 
named  as  the  father  of  the  American  school  of  sculpture.  While,  how- 
ever, his  works  have  not  failed  to  awaken  the  admiration  of  those  who 
are  competent  to  appreciate  their  very  genuine  qualities,  they  have  exerted 
little  or  no  influence  on  the  growth  of  the  art  of  sculpture  in  the  United 
States,  and  they  stand  alone  as  the  performances  of  a  man  who  was  far 
ahead  of  his  age  in  artistic  sentiments  and  culture,  and  who  deserves  to 
be  much  more  highly  thought  of  than  he  is  by  a  present  public  which 
has  bestowed  abundant  commendation  on  many  men  of  far  less  eminent 
abilities. 

William  Rush  was  a  wood-carver  who  was  born  in  Philadelphia  in 
1757,  and  who  died  in  1833.  Although  he  worked  in  the  humblest 
materials,  he  was  none  the  less  an  artist  in  the  truest  and  best  sense 
of  the  word.  Indeed,  considering  the  almost  total  lack  of  artistic  culture 
in  his  day,  and  especially  the  almost  total  ignorance  of  even  the  most 
intelligent  and  best  educated  Americans  with  regard  to  sculpture  and  its 
aims  and  objects,  it  is  a  matter  for  wonder  that  this  wholly  self-taught 
man  was  able  to  accomplish  what  he  did.  It  is  nearly  impossible  for  an 
artist  in  our  day  to  be  self-taught  in  the  sense  that  Rush  wras,  for  even 
if  a  youth  who  desires  to  qualify  himself  for  being  an  artist  cannot  avail 
himself  of  the  facilities  of  the  best  schools,  what  with  books,  engravings 
and  photographs,  he  can  scarcely  avoid  obtaining  considerable  and 
very  adequate  knowledge,  not  only  with  regard  to  the  artistic  master- 
pieces of  the  world,  but  with  regard  to  the  doings  of  his  contemporaries, 


ioS 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


and  the  respective  merits  of  contemporary  schools  of  art.  In  Rush's  day 
it  was  very  different;  communication  with  Europe  was  slow  and  infrequent, 
books  were  very  scarce,  prints  were  a  great  deal  scarcer,  and  photographs, 
which  have  done  so  much  to  disseminate  artistic  knowledge  and  to  pro- 
mote the  growth  of  artistic  taste,  were  not  in  existence.  He  was  forced 
to  feel  his  own  way,  with  little  or  no  aid  from  any  source,  and  with  very 
little  sympathetic  appreciation  from  the  people  by  whom  he  was  surrounded. 
Despite  all  the  disadvantages  under  which  he  labored,  however,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  doing  a  great  deal  of  meritorious  work,  which,  even  if  it  is 
imperfect  in  its  modellings,  and  does  betray  the  sculptor's  lack  of  knowledge 
with  regard  to  some  important  technical  points,  is  so  thoroughly  fine  in 
many  particulars,  that  it  is  entitled  to  most  cordial,  if  not  unqualified 
admiration. 

Rush's  sculptures  are  marked  by  many  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
French  and  Italian  schools  of  his  period,  and  with  his  limited  facilities  for 
finding  out  what  was  being  done  by  contemporary  artists  on  the  other  side 
of  the  water,  he  must  have  had  a  remarkably  quick  and  receptive  mind, 
and  a  remarkably  retentive  memory,  to  have  been  able  to  profit  by  their 
examples.  He  was,  however,  chiefly  indebted  to  himself  and  to  his  study 
of  nature  for  becoming  the  truly  excellent  artist  which  he  certainly  was, 
and  his  works  are  stamped  by  an  individuality  that  acknowledges  an 
allegiance  to  no  schools  and  no  masters.  Many  of  Rush's  carvings  were 
figure-heads  to  vessels,  and  they  have  gone  the  way  of  the  old-time 
specimens  of  marine  architecture  to  which  they  were  attached.  Several 
of  his  most  important  performances  in  the  way  of  busts  of  eminent  men, 
ideal  statues  and  reliefs  remain,  however,  to  testify  to  his  genius,  and  to 
entitle  him  to  a  respectful  mention  in  connection  with  the  progress  of 
the  fine  arts  in  America.  The  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts 
possesses  two   of  his  busts  —  one  of  Washington   and   one  of  himself 


ROBERTS,  BAILLY,  HARNISCH  AND  RUSH.  109 

— and  it  ought  to  possess  his  exceedingly  beautiful  fountain  statue  of  a 
Nymph  Carrying  a  Bittern.  This  last  named  work  belongs  to  the 
city  of  Philadelphia,  as  does  also  his  statue  of  Washington  which  for 
many  years  stood  in  Independence  Hall.  Tradition  has  it  that  the  beautiful 
Miss  Vanuxem,  the  reigning  belle  of  the  day,  posed  as  a  model  for  it, 
and  if  she  was  as  beautiful  as  this  statue  would  imply,  the  heart-flutterings 
which  she  caused  to  the  Philadelphia  beaux  were  abundantly  justified. 
This  statue  is  of  wood,  and  for  many  years  it  stood  in  the  Centre  Square 
— afterwards  called  Penn  Square.  After  the  completion  of  the  Fairmount 
Water  Works,  it  was  removed  to  the  charming  little  park  which  was  laid 
out  in  connection  with  them,  and  was  placed  in  position  on  the  side  of 
the  hill  just  above  the  forebay.  A  few  years  ago  it  was  found  that  this 
statue  was  badly  decayed,  and  a  bronze  casting  of  it  was  therefore  made, 
which  was  given  the  place  at  one  time  occupied  by  a  statue  of  a  Boy 
and  Dolphin,  on  the  fountain  in  old  Fairmount  Park.  Strange  to  say, 
the  original  statue,  after  having  been  carefully  copied  in  an  enduring 
material,  was,  notwithstanding  the  fact  of  its  being  almost  ready  to  drop 
to  pieces,  returned  to  its  old  place  on  the  side  of  the  hill,  without  any 
effort  for  its  permanent  preservation  being  made  beyond  decorating  it 
with  a  fresh  coat  of  white  paint.  It  certainly  ought  to  have  been  deposited 
in  the  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  or  some  other  institution,  where  it 
would  have  been  properly  cared  for.  This  statue  is  not  only  a  beautiful 
work,  but  it  is  the  most  graceful  and  beautiful  work  of  its  kind  in  America. 
There  is  no  doubt  about  this,  for  no  fountain  statue  in  this  country  will 
at  all  compare  with  it  in  dignity,  grace,  beauty,  and  true  artistic  appro- 
priateness. In  it  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia  have  a  genuine  masterpiece, 
which  they  ought  to  prize  as  something  beyond  price,  not  only  because 
of  its  intrinsic  merits,  but  because  of  its  author.  The  old  Park  at  Fair- 
mount  contains  two  other  of  the  noteworthy  performances  of  William 
Rush.     These  are  the  reliefs  above  the  doors  of  the  wheel-house.  They 


I  IO 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


are  compositions  of  superior  excellence,  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  artist, 
and  well  worthy  of  having  an  effort  made  for  their  preservation,  such  as 
was  made  in  the  case  of  the  lovely  fountain  statue. 

Rush  was  an  enthusiast,  but  an  intelligent  enthusiast,  in  behalf  of 
his  art  and  in  behalf  of  artistic  culture  generally.  He  was  exceedingly 
anxious  to  have  an  Art  Academy  started  in  Philadelphia,  and  exerted 
himself  strenuously  to  get  one  established.  His  efforts  for  a  long  time 
amounted  to  nothing,  unless  it  was  in  calling  attention  to  the  subject, 
and  in  preparing  the  minds  of  cultivated  people  to  appreciate  the  neces- 
sities of  the  situation,  and  thus  smoothing  the  way  for  the  enterprising 
and  public-spirited  men  who  finally  joined  with  him  in  founding  the 
Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts. 


m  1 


THE   AlfGEL  OF  THE   SEPULCHRE  „ 


CHAPTER  VI. 


BROWN,  WARD,  PALMER,  CONNELLY  AND  MOZIER 


EARLY  all  of  the  sculptors  whose  performances  have  thus  far 
been  noticed  were  educated  abroad,  and  represented  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  in  their  works  the  ideas  and  traditions 
of  the  European  schools.  In  this  cosmopolitan  age,  and,  in  this  country, 
which  is  a  direct  inheritor  of  the  civilization  of  Pairope,  it  is  not  possible, 
nor,  perhaps,  desirable,  for  any  class  of  artists  to  ignore  old  world  influence; 
but,  there  is  so  much  that  is  peculiar  and  distinctive  in  American  life, 
habit,  customs  and  manner  of  thought,  so  much  that  calls  for  artistic 
interpretation  by  men  who  are  as  near  as  may  be,  distinctively  American 
in  their  culture,  that  the  careers  of  such  sculptors  as  Henry  Kirke  Brown, 
John  Quincy  Adams  Ward  and  Erastus  D.  Palmer  are  to  be  viewed  with 
particular  satisfaction.  Of  these  three  Brown  is  the  only  one  who  can  be 
said  to  have  studied  abroad,  and  as  he  was  a  man  of  mature  years  and 
an  artist  of  some  repute  when  he  made  his  brief  visit  to  Europe,  he  is 
almost  as  much  entitled  to  be  considered  as  an  American  taught  artist  as 
Ward  or  Palmer.  Ward  had  Brown  for  a  master,  while  Palmer  is  entirely 
self-taught,  and  has  made  a  particular  effort  to  preserve  his  own  individu- 
ality, and  to  keep  himself  free  from  the  influence  of  all  schools,  ancient 

and  modern.    That  Palmer  has  not  succeeded  in  doing  this  to  the  extent 

in 


I  I  2 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


he  imagines,  must  be  plain  to  any  one  familiar  with  his  works,  but  it  is 
true  that  he  has  a  very  strongly  marked  individuality  of  style,  and 
is  almost  the  only  American  sculptor  of  eminence  whose  works  are 
distinguished  for  high  technical,  as  well  as  high  ideal  qualities  who  has. 
These  three  fine  artists  have  taken  up  the  work  of  old  William  Rush,  the 
Philadelphia  wood-carver,  where  he  dropped  it  half  a  century  ago,  and 
as  they  have  shown  that  it  is  possible  for  Americans  to  become  sculptors, 
and  good  ones,  without  the  aid  of  European  instructors,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  they  will  have  a  numerous  following,  and  will  succeed  in  materially 
aiding  to  do  what  William  Rush,  in  connection  with  Charles  Wilson  Peale 
— another  man  of  eminent  talent,  whose  name  is  worthy  of  being  held  in 
respectful  remembrance  by  all  true  lovers  of  art — tried  to  do  in  the  way 
of  founding  a  truly  and  distinctively  American  school  of  art. 

Henry  Kirke  Brown  is  the  oldest  of  the  trio  we  have  named.  He 
was  born  in  Leyden,  Massachusetts,  in  1814,  and  originally  intended  to 
devote  himself  to  painting.  He  obtained  considerable  proficiency  with  the 
brush,  and  even  after  he  took  up  sculpture,  he  did  not  entirely  abandon 
the  practice  of  painting.  That  his  experiences  in  working  frequently  with 
colors  have  been  of  the  greatest  value  to  him  as  a  sculptor  cannot  be 
doubted.  The  sculptor  dealing  with  the  round  without  the  aid  of  color, 
and  the  painter  endeavoring  to  express  relief  by  means  of  color,  have 
much  to  learn  of  each  other,  and  they  both  would  gain  by  knowing  more 
than  they  commonly  do  about  each  other's  methods.  Brown  commenced 
the  study  of  art  in  Boston,  but  when  about  twenty-three  years  of  age 
he  removed  to  Cincinnati.  In  that  city,  while  doing  work  both  as  a 
painter  and  as  a  sculptor,  he  went  through  a  rigid  anatomical  course 
under  the  direction  of  his  friend  Dr.  Willard  Parker,  and  it  was  while, 
a  resident  of  Cincinnati  that  he  made  his  first  marble  bust.  In  a  couple 
of  years  he  came  east  again,  and  in  1842  he  went  to  Italy,  where  he 


BRO  WN,  WARD,  PAL  MER,  CONNER  LY  A  ND  M  OZIER.    1 1  3 


remained  for  four  years.  While  in  Italy  he  executed  several  ideal  statues 
and  portrait  busts.  On  his  return  to  America  he  located  himself  in 
Brooklyn,  and  he  has  had  his  home,  or  at  least  his  headquarters,  either  in 
that  city  or  in  New  York  ever  since.  None  of  Brown's  performances  up  to 
the  time  he  went  to  Brooklyn  were  very  remarkable,  although  they  were 
more  than  respectable.  Shortly  after  going  to  Brooklyn,  however,  an 
opportunity  was  given  him  to  distinguish  himself  by  a  commission  for  an 
equestrian  statue  of  Washington,  to  be  paid  for  by  the  subscriptions  of 
wealthy  and  patriotic  citizens  of  New  York.  This  statue,  which,  on  its 
completion,  was  erected  on  a  peculiarly  imposing  site  in  Union  Square, 
New  York,  has  stood  the  test  of  the  severest  criticism  for  many,  many 
years.  Its  location,  in  the  midst  of  a  great  city,  and  where  the  currents 
of  travel  along  its  most  important  thoroughfare  eddy  around  it  constantly, 
is  the  best  that  could  be  found  in  the  whole  United  States  for  a  really 
admirable  piece  of  monumental  sculpture,  and  the  most  trying  for  an 
indifferent  one. 

The  equestrian  statue  of  General  Winfield  Scott,  which  has  recently 
been  completed  by  Brown  for  the  United  States  government,  for  erection 
on  some  prominent  site  in  Washington,  is  in  every  way  up  to  the  high 
standard  of  the  New  York  Washington.  Indeed  we  are  not  sure  but  that 
the  Scott  is  the  most  admirable  of  the  two.  In  it  the  artist  has  not 
flinched  from  the  severest  realism,  and  no  one  who  has  ever  seen  General 
Scott  on  horseback  can  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  startlingly  life-like 
appearance  of  this  statue.  Another  of  Brown's  monumental  statues  which 
is  thoroughly  satisfying,  is  his  General  Nathaniel  Greene,  in  the  old  Repre- 
sentatives' Hall  in  the  National  Capitol,  and  still  another  is  the  recumbent 
figure  of  the  late  Edward  Shippen  Burd  in  St.  Stephen's  Church,  Phila- 
delphia. The  General  Greene  was  made  on  a  commission  from  the  State 
of  Rhode  Island,  and  it  is  one  of  the  very  few  works  in  the  old  Repre- 


ii4 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


sentatives'  Hall  which  rise  above  mediocrity,  or  something  still  lower  than 
this. 

Ward,  who  was  Brown's  pupil,  and  who  assisted  him  with  his  Wash- 
ington, is  an  even  stronger  man.  He  is  certainly  the  ablest  living  American 
sculptor,  and  his  best  works  are  distinguished  by  a  union  of  realistic 
strength  and  imaginative  dignity  that  will  entitle  them  to  the  admiration 
of  all  future  generations,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  changes  of  fashion 
or  the  fluctuations  of  taste.  Ward's  father  was  an  Ohio  farmer,  and  from 
his  birth  in  1830  until  he  was  of  an  age  when  it  was  necessary  for  him 
to  decide  as  to  his  future  profession,  he  lived  the  ordinary  life  of  a  farmer's 
boy,  but  developing  his  latent  artistic  talents  by  attempting  to  copy  in 
day  and  wax  such  engravings  as  took  his  fancy.  His  family,  not  unna- 
turally, did  not  greatly  encourage  his  inclinations  to  become  an  artist,  and 
after  a  good  deal  of  persuasion  he  was  induced  to  study  medicine.  This, 
however,  was  so  distasteful  to  him  that  he  soon  gave  it  up.  His  destiny 
was  finally  decided  by  Brown  consenting  to  admit  him  to  his  studio  as  a 
pupil — a  fortunate  thing  for  the  young  sculptor,  for  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  him  to  have  found  a  better  or  more  judicious  master  on 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  While  under  Brown's  instruction  Ward  improved 
rapidly,  and  before  he  was  out  of  his  apprenticeship  he  conceived  the  idea 
and  commenced  to  make  designs  for  his  Indian  Hunter.  When  Brown 
gave  up  his  Brooklyn  studio,  Ward  took  it,  and  began  the  execution  of 
two  important  works — The  Indian  Hunter  and  a  statue  of  Simon  Kenton, 
the  Ohio  pioneer — which  brought  him  into  immediate  notice,  and  gave 
him  the  position  in  the  front  rank  of  American  artists  which  he  has  ever 
since  easily  held. 

The  Indian  Hunter,  which  is  one  of  the  principal  of  the  purely  artistic 
adornments  of  Central  Park,  New  York,  is  a  wonderfully  vigorous,  life- 


©  PIE  1,1  A.. 


B  R  O  WN,  WA  RD,  PAL  MER ,  CONN  EL  LY  A  ND  M  O  ZIER.    1 1  5 


like  and  impressive  work.  It  is  by  all  odds  the  best  and  most  interesting- 
statue  that  the  Park  contains — and  this  not  because  it  is  American  in  its 
subject,  but  because  of  its  very  genuine  artistic  qualities.  This  group — 
for  it  is  a  group,  as  the  dog,  with  the  aid  of  which  the  hunter  is  tracking 
his  game,  plays  very  nearly  as  important  a  part  in  it  as  the  man  does 
— is  one  of  the  finest,  if  not  the  very  finest  that  has  been  executed  by 
an  American  sculptor.  It  is  not  so  elaborate  as  Greenough's  group  of 
The  Rescue  at  the  National  Capitol,  but  it  is  superior  to  that  work  in  a 
number  of  important  particulars,  and  that  superiority  of  itself  marks  it  as 
a  performance  of  extraordinary  merit.  In  the  figure  of  the  hunter,  Ward 
has  made  a  close  and  faithful  study  of  the  peculiar  muscular  development 
of  the  aboriginal  races  of  this  continent,  as  wrell  as  of  the  Indian  physi- 
ognomy, for,  as  the  reader  is  probably  aware,  not  only  does  the  Indian 
skeleton  differ  materially  in  certain  particulars  from  that  of  the  man  of 
Caucasian  descent,  but  the  muscular  development  differs  also.  This  is  a 
nice  technical  point  that  is  of  considerable  but  not  of  essential  importance. 
The  great  thing  is  that  the  sculptor  has  undertaken  to  represent  a  man 
engaged  in  a  certain  act  which  calls  all  of  his  faculties  into  intense  and 
characteristic  play,  and  that  he  has  succeeded  in  doing  so.  Both  the  dog 
— which  fairly  quivers  with  excitement,  and  which  is  barely  stayed  by  the 
cautionary  hand  of  his  master  from  rushing  on  his  prey — and  the  Indian, 
who  advances  with  stealthy  step,  his  eye  intently  fixed  upon  the  object 
against  which  he  is  advancing,  and  his  whole  being  absorbed  in  the 
eagerness  of  his  pursuit,  are  instinct  with  an  intense  vitality,  which  suggests 
not  merely  nature,  but  nature  in  one  of  his  most  interesting,  because 
most  unsophisticated,  moods. 

Another  of  Ward's  contributions  to  the  Central  Park  collection  of 
statuary  is  his  Shakespeare,  erected  at  quite  a  recent  period.  There  is  a 
certain  malappropriateness  about  the  idea  of  making  a  Park  statue  of  such 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


a  work  as  this,  which  it  is  difficult  to  become  reconciled  to.  The  figure, 
nevertheless,  is  one  of  no  common  merit,  and  as  an  ideal  representation 
of  the  great  dramatist,  it  is  exceedingly  satisfying.  Ward  has  represented 
Shakespeare  in  a  meditative  attitude,  with  one  hand  holding  a  book  to 
his  breast,  and  the  momentary  action,  of  a  man  deep  in  thought  almost 
pausing  in  a  slow  saunter  as  an  idea  flits  through  his  brain,  is  admirably 
suggested.  In  the  head  of  this  statue  the  sculptor  has  not  given  a  literal 
translation  of  any  one  of  the  authentic  portraits  of  Shakespeare  that  have 
come  down  to  us,  but  he  has  taken  suggestions  from  all  of  them,  and 
the  impression  which,  not  the  head  merely,  but  the  whole  figure  gives,  is 
that  Shakespeare  must  have  been  much  this  sort  of  man. 

An  even  greater  work  than  this  is  the  still  more  recent  bronze  statue 
of  heroic  size  of  General  Israel  Putnam.  This  was  executed  for  the  State 
of  Massachusetts,  and  is  one  of  the  contributions  of  that  State  to  the 
National  Sculpture  Gallery  in  the  old  Representatives'  Hall  at  Washington. 
The  Putnam,  like  the  Shakespeare,  is  an  ideal  work,  based  upon  such 
authentic  portraits  as  are  in  existence.  Ward  studied  this  work  deeply, 
and  he  has  made  of  the  bluff  old  farmer-soldier  a  truly  heroic  figure,  full 
of  fiery  energy  and  a  dauntlessness  of  spirit  that  could  not  know  the 
meaning  of  such  a  word  as  fear.  It  is  such  a  figure  as  would  have  made 
Putnam's  heart  leap  to  look  at,  and  which  will  always  appeal,  by  its  noble 
simplicity,  to  the  manly  sympathies  of  like-minded  men  with  him. 

Before  making  either  the  Shakespeare  or  the  Putnam,  Ward  executed 
a  considerable  number  of  sculptures  of  greater  or  less  importance.  Just 
before  the  war  he  resided  for  some  time  in  Washington,  where  he 
modelled  busts  of  Joshua  Giddings,  John  P.  Hale,  Alexander  H.  Stephens, 
and  other  public  men.  Since  the  war  he  has  sculptured  a  memorial 
statue,  representing  a  private  of  the  Seventh  New  York  Regiment, — a  fine 


BROWN,  WARD,  PALMER,  CONNELLY  AND  MOZIER.  117 


work  which  greatly  increased  his  already  great  reputation — and  one  of 
Commodore  Perry.  The  Seventh  Regiment  Soldier  was  erected  in  Central 
Park,  and  the  Perry  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island.  Another  superior  per- 
formance, of  a  different  order  of  interest  from  any  that  have  thus  far  been 
mentioned,  is  the  granite  group  of  The  Good  Samaritan,  in  the  Public 
Garden  at  Boston.  This  is  a  memorial  of  the  discovery  of  the  anaesthetic 
properties  of  ether,  and  in  some  particulars  it  is  entitled  to  be  regarded 
as  the  artist's  greatest  achievement. 

Palmer,  who  was  born  April  2,  181 7,  in  Onondaga  County,  New  York, 
was  brought  up  to  the  carpenter's  trade,  and  when  he  abandoned  it  for 
sculpture  he  had  the  reputation  of  being  an  uncommonly  good  workman. 
While  engaged  at  carpentering  he  amused  his  leisure  by  cutting  cameo 
portraits  on  shells,  and  he  was  not  long  in  acquiring  a  proficiency  in 
that  sort  of  thing,  and  also  not  very  long  in  injuring  his  eyes  to  such 
an  extent  that  he  was  compelled  to  give  it  up.  He  had  discovered, 
however,  that  he  had  the  making  of  a  sculptor  in  him,  and  his  carpenter's 
bench  ceased  to  have  any  attractions  for  him.  As  he  was  very  successful, 
in  some  of  his  first  attempts  at  clay  modelling,  in  developing  a  peculiarly 
delicate  and  fanciful  vein  of  ideas,  the  public  were  not  long  in  discovering 
his  merits,  and  in  giving  him  ample  encouragement.  Palmer  improved 
rapidly,  and  he  had  not  been  working  at  his  art  many  years  before  he 
was  the  best  known  and  most  popular  of  American  sculptors.  There  was 
a  quality  in  his  work  which  pleased  the  average  man  and  woman  amazingly, 
and  the  photographs  of  his  ideal  statues  and  busts  must  have  sold  by 
thousands.  It  is  creditable  to  him  that  his  brilliant  success  did  not  spoil 
him,  for,  although  he  has  persisted  in  ignoring  all  schools  and  all  masters, 
he  has  steadily  improved,  and  his  latest  works  are  distinguished  by  very 
positive  qualities  of  excellence  not  observable  in  those  of  several  years 
ago.     His  Chancellor  Livingston — exhibited  in  the  Centennial  Exhibition 


ii8 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


— is  a  recent  performance  and  a  very  admirable  one.     This  is  a  dignified 
and  expressive  statue,  with  a  good  deal  of  Palmer's  peculiar  gracefulness 
in  the  arrangement  of  the  draperies,  but  with  a  more  masculine  style  of 
treatment  as  a  whole  than  was  to  have  been  expected  from  most  of  his 
previous  efforts.     This  statue  was  ordered  by  the  State  of  New  York  for 
the  National  Statue  Gallery  in  the  old  Hall  of  Representatives.     Most  of 
Palmers  works,  however,  with  the  exception  of  his  portrait  busts,  have 
been  interpretations  of  purely  ideal  subjects,  such  as  The  Infant  Ceres, 
The  Sleeping  Peri,  The  Spirit's  Flight,  Resignation,  and  Spring.  The 
statues  which  have  added  most  to  his  fame  are  The  Indian  Girl,  The 
White  Captive,  and  the  Angel  at  the  Sepulchre.     Of  this  last  we  give  a 
finely  executed  engraving,  which  very  perfectly  reproduces  the  peculiar 
expression  of  the  face,  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  charms  of  the  statue. 
Is  this  angel  sitting  there  guarding  the  sepulchre  and  awaiting  the  awaking 
of  its  slumbering  tenant,  or,  has  the  dead  arisen,  and  is  he,  with  even  his 
angelic  intelligence  puzzled  by  the  mystery  of  the  resurrection,  listening 
intently  at  the  footsteps  of  the  approaching  disciples,  and  considering  what 
answer  he  shall  give  to  their  eager  queries  ?    A  truly  thoughtful  work 
of  art  always  suggests  more  than  it  absolutely  reveals,  and  if,  in  attempting 
to  read  the  expression  on  the  face  of  Palmer's  angel,  we  find  that  it 
gives  forth '  more  than  one  meaning,  we  must  remember  that   in  this 
respect  its  characteristics  are  identical  with  those  of  some  of  the  greatest 
of  the  great  masterpieces.     While  noting  how  thoroughly  American  the 
fine  head  of  this  angel  is,  we  are  also  bound  to  note  that  both  in  face 
and  figure  he  is  of  a  very  fleshy  and  unangelical  type.     Indeed,  Palmer 
has  always  shown  a  singular  preference  for  rather  phlegmatic  modes,  and 
his  two  most  important  studies  from  the  nude — The  White  Captive  and 
The  Indian  Girl — are  lacking  in  precisely  that  litheness  which  is  one  of 
the  chief  charms  of  the  best  antique  representatives  of  the  nude  human 
figure.     Both  of  these  statues,  however,  have  very  admirable  qualities. 


BROWN,  WARD,  PALMER,  CONNELLY -AND  MOZIER.  119 


Many  of  Palmer's  works,  particularly  his  early  ones,  have  not  been  dis- 
tinguished by  refined  modelling — that  is,  the  finer  markings  of  the  form 
have  either  been  neglected  altogether  or  have  not  been  adequately  expressed. 
In  these  figures  the  flesh  really  looks  fleshy,  and  the  sculptor  has  evidently 
made  a  serious  endeavor  to  express  all  that  required  expression.  They 
are  works  of  great  beauty,  and  they  have  all  the  peculiar  ideal  charm  about 
them  that  has  made  this  sculptor's  performances  so  enormously  successful 
with  the  general  public — for  the  general  public  is  not,  as  many  artists 
fancy,  insensible  to  ideality  in  statuary  and  paintings,  although  it  is  insensible 
to  a  good  deal  that  attempts  to  pass  for  as  much.  Such  a  figure  as 
that  of  the  Angel  at  the  Sepulchre  for  instance,  the  engraving  of  which 
is  before  the  reader,  is  not  without  its  positive  technical  merits,  but  it 
appeals  to  the  beholder  not  through  them  so  much  as  through  those 
qualities  that  are  beyond  the  reach  of  technique. 

P.  F.  Connelly,  a  young  sculptor  who  had  been  studying  and  working 
in  Florence  for  a  number  of  years,  and  who  had  gained  a  good  repute 
through  his  ideal  and  portrait  busts,  came  prominently  before  the  American 
public  for  the  first  time  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition.  He  exhibited  a 
much  greater  number  of  works  than  any  other  American  sculptor,  and 
displayed  as  great  a  versatility  as  any.  The  most  important  of  Connelly's 
exhibits  were  the  bronze  group  of  Honor  Arresting  the  Triumph  of  Death, 
the  marble  group  of  St.  Martin  Dividing  His  Cloak,  the  marble  statue  of 
Ophelia,  and  the  marble  statue  of  Thetis.  The  last  named  was  a  classic 
theme,  treated  with  a  classic  simplicity  and  grace  that  won  for  it  very 
cordial  admiration.  The  Ophelia,  and  indeed  most  of  Connelly's  other 
performances,  represented  distinctly  modern  and  romantic  ideas  with  regard 
to  the  aims  of  sculpture.  The  two  groups  we  have  mentioned  were  far 
more  picturesque  than  sculpturesque  in  composition,  and  even  the  single 
figure  of  Ophelia  has  little  or  nothing  of  what  we  are  accustomed  to  call 


1 20 


AMERICAN 


SCULPTURES. 


statuesqueness  about  it,  but  might  have  walked  out  of  a  gorgeously  colored 
picture  and  have  been  crystalized  into  the  snowy  whiteness  of  the  marble. 
The  peculiarly  picturesque  attributes  of  this  statue  are  strongly  recognizable 
in  our  engraving,  which  might  readily  be  taken  to  represent,  not  a  marble 
Ophelia,  but  a  figure  glowing  with  all  the  hues  of  the  painter's  palette. 
The  adverse  criticism  that  must  be  made  against  this  statue  is  that  it  does 
not  strongly  suggest  the  madness  of  Ophelia.  Apart  from  this,  however,  it 
is  distinguished  by  a  singular  sweetness  and  grace  in  the  expression  of  the 
face  and  in  the  pose  of  the  figure.  This  statue  was  admired  during  the 
progress  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition  even  more  than  was  the  Thetis, 
perhaps  because  it  was  more  in  accord  with  modern  sympathies  and  tastes. 

The  pathetic  group  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  of  which  we  give  an  engraving, 
is  in  the  collection  of  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  it 
having  been  presented  to  that  institution  some  years  ago  by  Mr.  J. 
Gillingham  Fell.  This  is  the  most  important  production  of  its  author, 
Joseph  Mozier,  a  native  of  Vermont,  who  has  for  a  long  time  been  a 
resident  of  Rome.  Mozier  was  born  August  22,  181 2.  Until  he  was  about 
thirty  years  of  age  art  was  only  an  amusement  to  him.  In  1845,  however, 
he  retired  from  business  as  a  Bond  Street  merchant,  in  New  York,  and 
went  to  Rome  for  the  purpose  of  following  the  natural  bent  of  his 
inclinations.  Among  other  things  he  has  sculptured  statues  of  Esther, 
the  Wept  of  the  Wish-ton-Wish,  a  Peri,  Jeptha's  Daughter,  Pocahontas, 
Rebecca  at  the  Well,  Rizpah,  and  companion  figures  of  Silence  and 
Truth.  These  last  mentioned  were  made  for  the  Astor  Library.  Mozier 
was  a  successful  business  man  before  he  became  a  sculptor,  and  since 
he  has  devoted  himself  to  art  his  business  talents  have  apparently  stood 
him  in  good  stead,  as  he  has  the  reputation  of  being,  in  a  business  way, 
one  of  the  most  successful  of  the  American  artists  residing  in  Italy.  He 
is  particularly  fortunate  in  having  his  finest  performance   owned  by  an 


THE . PRODIGAL  SON 

FROM     THE     GROUP    BT    I  MOZIER 


BROUW,  WARD,  PALMER,  CONNELLY  AND  MOZIER.  121 


American  institution  of  the  high  character  of  the  Pennsylvania  Academy 
of  the  Fine  Arts,  and  the  prominent  place  which  has  been  assigned  to 
his  group  of  The  Prodigal  Son  in  the  interesting  collection  of  sculptures 
belonging  to  the  Academy  ought  to  be  most  flattering  to  his  pride.  There 
is  much  pure  pathos  in  this  composition,  which  appeals  with  directness  and 
force  to  the  hearts  of  those  who  pause  in  their  rambles  through  the  galle- 
ries of  the  Academy  to  gaze  on  it.  The  benignity  and  fatherly  tenderness 
of  the  old  man,  who  remembers  nothing  except  that  the  lost  one  has  been 
found,  and  the  utter  weariness  of  the  son,  and  his  complete  abandonment 
of  himself  to  his  father's  mercies,  are  expressed  in  a  language  that  all  may 
read,  and  that  requires  no  explanation  or  commentary. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


GOULD,  SIMMONS,  BARTHOLOMEW  AND  AKERS 


HAKESPEARE  makes  the  Duke  Theseus  say  in  way  of  apology 
for  the  play  of  Pyramus  and  Thisbe  as  represented  by  Bully 
Bottom — that  paragon  of  all  artistic  pretenders — and  his  com- 
rade clowns:  "The  best  in  this  kind  are  but  shadows;  and  the  worse  are 
no  worse,  if  imagination  mend  them."  A  kindly  criticism  that  embodies 
a  fine  philosophical  idea,  for  it  is  a  recognition  of  the  genuine  qualities 
of  all  really  earnest  artistic  effort,  as  well  as  of  the  necessity  for  the 
spectator  being  in  imaginative  sympathy  with  a  work  of  art  before  he  can 
properly  understand  and  appreciate  it.  Standing  before  Gould's  statue  of 
the  West  Wind,  for  instance,  it  is  essential  for  a  comprehension  of  the 
peculiar  points  of  excellence  in  the  work,  not  only  that  the  very  beautiful 
idea  which  has  been  expressed  should  be  clearly  defined  in  the  mind,  but 
that  the  imagination  should  come  to  the  aid  of  the  understanding.  How 
could  the  artist  cut  out  of  the  heart  of  a  block  of  marble  that  has  been 
buried  for  centuries  in  the  everlasting  hills,  a  personification  of 

"  — a  breath  of  viewless  wind 
As  very  spirit  be," 

except  by  having  come  thronging  back  to  him  the  memory  of  many  a 


GOULD,  SIMMONS,  BARTHOLOMEW  AND  A  NEKS. 


breezy  day  upon  the  prairies,  where  the  tall  grasses  billowed  and  bowed 
as  the  strong",  free  air  currents  came  gliding  down  from  the  heights  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  to  whirl  in  a  mystic  dance  over  them?  And  to  be  in 
sympathy  with  such  a  personification  the  spectator  must  be  able  to  bring 
up  before  his  mind  some  image  like  that  which  inspired  the  imagination 
of  the  sculptor;  then,  if  art  is  capable  of  speaking  any  language  to  him, 
this  bright-faced  and  free-hearted  American  girl,  whom  an  artistic  meta- 
morphosis has  caught  and  turned  to  marble  in  the  midst  of  her  joyous 
dance,  ceases  to  represent  a  mere  phantasy  and  becomes  the  embodiment 
of  a  fine  artistic  fact.  Such  a  statue  as  this  ought  to  impress  the  imagi- 
nation in  the  same  manner  that  the  West  Wind,  sweeping  and  whirling 
over  the  grassy  prairies  would  do.  And  does  it  not  do  this  ?  we  would 
ask  of  any  one  who  saw  it  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  and  who  knows 
what  the  West  Wind  of  the  prairies  is.  The  statue  is  so  truly  original 
in  conception,  and  the  artist  has  treated  his  subject  with  such  disregard 
of  many  artistic  conventions,  that  our  engraving,  while  it  may  give  a  general 
notion  of  it,  cannot  do  it  full  justice.  It  is  a  work  that  must  be  studied 
from  more  than  one  point  of  view,  if  its  full  meaning  is  to  be  thoroughly 
understood  and  appreciated,  for  the  motion  which  is  indicated  is  very 
peculiar,  and,  if  the  statue  is  regarded  as  a  mere  representation,  and 
nothing  more,  of  the  human  figure,  is  an  unnatural  one.  Considered  in 
its  true  light  as  a  personification,  however,  the  motion  of  the  figure  is 
entirely  natural,  and  the  license  of  the  sculptor  has  its  ample  justification 
in  the  results  which  he  has  achieved. 

The  great  originality  of  Gould's  West  Wind  it  is  worth  while  to 
insist  on,  and  to  insist  on  strongly,  for  attacks  have  been  made  on  the 
statue  on  the  ground  that  it  is  not  original.  The  work  of  which  it  has 
been  asserted  to  be  an  imitation,  is  Canova's  well-known  Hebe,  but  no 
candid  critic  who  is  acquainted  with  both  statues  can  possibly  say  that 


124 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


there  are  such  points  of  resemblance  between  them  as  to  lay  the  American 
sculptor  open  to  the  charge  of  having  borrowed  anything  from  the  Italian. 
The  only  point  in  which  the  two  works  at  all  resemble  each  other  is  in 
the  backward  blown  skirts,  but  Gould  has  treated  his  draperies  as  he  has 
treated  his  figure,  in  his  own  fashion,  and  as  the  statues  in  motion,  style 
and  execution  are  in  every  way  dissimilar,  the  accusation  made  against 
the  West  Wind  is  a  mere  absurdity.  Gould,  indeed,  had  no  occasion  to 
borrow  from  anybody,  much  less  from  a  man  of  the  limited  imaginative 
gifts  of  Canova,  and  in  all  the  elements  of  genuine  poetry  his  West  Wind 
is  out  of  all  comparison  superior  to  the  Hebe.  The  sculptor,  in  a  letter 
to  the  writer  of  these  chapters,  said  that  the  idea  of  this  statue  flashed 
upon  him  in  a  moment — as  all  fine  and  original  ideas,  it  seems  to  us, 
must  do  to  an  artist,  no  matter  what  labor  it  may  cost  him  to  give  them 
palpable  shape  in  marble  or  on  canvas.  That  it  was  a  labor  of  love  to 
mould  that  idea  into  shape  in  the  yielding  clay,  and  to  give  it  form  in 
the  enduring  marble,  we  can  well  believe.  The  artist  knew  that  his  idea 
was  a  fine  one,  and  that  it  was  well  worthy  of  being  worked  out  in  the 
most  perfect  shape  he  could  give  it.  The  original  of  this  statue  was 
purchased  by  Hon.  Demas  Barnes,  of  Brooklyn,  but  numerous  replicas 
of  it  have  been  executed. 

Thomas  R.  Gould,  the  sculptor  of  the  West  Wind,  is  a  native  of 
Boston,  and  was  born  about  1825.  Up  to  the  commencement  of  the 
Civil  War  he  was  a  merchant,  and  art  and  literature  were  mere  pastimes 
for  the  beguilement  of  his  leisure  hours.  The  breaking  out  of  the  war 
interfered  so  seriously  with  the  business  of  his  house,  which  was  largely 
engaged  in  the  Southern  trade,  that  he  determined  to  drop  mercantile 
pursuits  and  to  carry  out  a  long-cherished  desire  by  devoting  himself  to 
art.  He  therefore  went  to  Florence,  and,  although  a  man  of  middle  age, 
bent  himself  seriously  to  the  study  of  the  technique  of  sculpture. 


¥E  §  T  ¥IIDo 


GOULD,  SIMMONS,  BARTHOLOMEW  AND  AKERS. 


One  of  his  earliest  performances  after  becoming  a  sculptor,  was  a 
bust  of  Junius  Brutus  Booth.  With  this  great  actor  Gould  was  on  terms 
of  friendly  intimacy,  and  in  his  book  entitled  The  Tragedian,  he  has 
preserved  invaluable  reminiscences  of  Booth's  playing  in  most  of  his 
important  roles.  This  little  book,  in  fact,  is  thoroughly  admirable  in  its 
way.  It  relates  concerning  the  actor  just  the  very  facts  best  worth  relating, 
and  in  reading  over  Gould's  descriptions  of  the  elder  Booth's  performances, 
those  familiar  with  the  younger  Booth's  methods,  can  readily  see  that  he 
is  indebted  to  his  gifted  father  for  many  of  the  finest  and  most  impressive 
of  the  "  points  "  which  he  makes.  For  instance,  any  one  who  has  attentively 
watched  Edwrin  Booth  in  the  character  of  Cassius  in  Shakespeare's  tragedy 
of  Julius  Caesar,  must  have  noticed  how  he  steps  over  the  body  of  Caesar, 
in  the  assassination  scene,  scarcely  restraining  himself  from  trampling  on 
it  as  he  does  so,  his  countenance  all  the  while  gleaming  with  an  expression 
of  gratified  hate  and  revenge.  This  detail  of  stage  business  seems  to 
have  been  original  with  the  elder  Booth,  and  it  also  seems  to  have  made 
a  profound  impression  on  the  imagination  of  Gould,  for  he  alludes  to  it 
as  one  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the  actor's  personation  of  Cassius. 

Timon  is  a  Shakespearean  character  that  Gould  regretfully  wishes  that 
the  elder  Booth  had  played,  and  in  his  statue  of  Timon  standing  "  upon 
the  beached  verge  of  the  salt  flood"  and  letting  "sour  words  go  by, 
and  language  end,"  he  has  apparently  attempted  to  embody  the  ideal 
of  such  a  Timon  as  Booth  would  have  made  had  he  undertaken  the  part. 
The  artist  asserts  that  the  likeness  to  Booth  in  this  statue  is  uninten- 
tional, but  it  is  so  positive  that  he  must,  even  if  unconsciously  to  himself, 
have  somehow  obtained  an  artistic  identification  in  his  mind  of  the  great 
actor  with  the  misanthrope  "sick  of  this  false  world,"  whom  the  world's 
greatest  poet  created  for  the  use  of  illustrious  actors  like  Junius  Brutus 
Booth. 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


One  of  Goulds  most  imaginative  performances  is  a  Ghost  of  Hamlet's 
Father.  This  is  a  recently  executed  relief  in  marble,  and  the  partial 
translucency  of  the  material  has  been  skillfully  taken  advantage  of  to  pro- 
duce a  "  luminous,  gem-like,  ghost-like,  death-like "  face,  that  appears  to 
be  resolving  itself  into  form  out  of  the  marble  as  out  of  a  thick  mist,  and 
that,  with  its  hollow  eyes  and  the  fleecy,  cloud-like  beard,  only  half  detaching 
itself  from  the  surrounding  nothingness,  is  most  spiritual  in  its  suggestive- 
ness.  The  sculptor  has  succeeded  in  this  work  in  doing  what  innumerable 
artists  have  altogether  failed  to  do,  for  "  the  Majesty  of  buried  Denmark," 
which  stalks  with  so  kingly  a  stride  through  Shakespeare's  tragedy,  is  not 
commonly  an  impressive  figure  as  represented  on  the  stage  or  on  canvas. 

Another  Shakespearean  work  by  Gould  is  a  full-length  statue  of  Cleo- 
patra— Cleopatra  exclaiming  as  she  dies : — 

"Methinks,  I  hear 
Antony  call ;  I  see  him  rouse  himself 
To  praise  my  noble  act ;  I  hear  him  mock 
The  luck  of  Caesar,  which  the  gods  give  men 
To  excuse  their  after  wrath     *     *     *  * 
The  stroke  of  death  is  as  a  lover's  pinch, 
Which  hurts  and  is  desir'd." 

The  suggestions  of  this  statue  are  as  opposite  as  may  be  from  those 
of  Story's  celebrated  work.  Gould  has  not  found  it  necessary  to  depart 
from  the  Grecian  type  which  Hawthorne  thought  tame,  but  which  certainly 
is  not  tame,  and  his  Cleopatra  is  unmistakably  a  woman  of  Grecian  lineage. 
The  artistic  value  of  the  work,  however,  does  not  depend  upon  the 
realization  of  any  particular  type  in  face  and  figure,  so  much  as  upon 
the  expressiveness  of  the  pose,  which  even  in  its  perfect  freedom  and 
abandonment  is  inspired  by  a  queenly  grace  and  dignity.     The  fires  of 


(,0(JLD,  SIMMONS,  BARTHOLOMEW  AND  AKERS. 


the  "great  smouldering  furnace  deep  down  in  the  woman's  heart,"  which 
Hawthorne  detected  when  gazing  at  Story's  Cleopatra,  in  Gould's  statue 
have  burned  themselves  out,  and  have  left  nothing  but  a  mass  of  cinders 
and  ashes  to  tell  how  fiercely  they  once  did  burn.  This  statue  is  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Isaac  Fenno,  who  built  for  it  a  special  gallery  adjoining 
his  magnificent  residence  in  the  Boston  Highlands. 

The  statue  of  The  Ascending  Spirit  in  the  Forest  Hill  Cemetery  is  a 
work  of  exceeding  grace.  The  figure  really  appears  to  be  floating  upward, 
and  the  artist  has  been  remarkably  successful  in  overcoming  the  difficulties 
of  his  material  in  carrying  out  his  idea.  Two  colossal  heads,  one  of 
Christ,  and  one  of  Satan  are  among  the  most  interesting  of  Gould's  ideal 
works,  while  his  statues  of  John  Hancock  at  Lexington,  and  Governor 
Andrew  at  Hingham,  Massachusetts,  are  admirable  specimens  of  portraiture. 

The  actors  are  accustomed  to  say  that  a  character  wrell  dressed  is  half 
played ;  with  a  painter  or  sculptor  a  subject  well  selected  accomplishes 
something  more  than  half  the  struggle  for  public  approbation  which  he 
enters  upon  when  he  undertakes  a  new  work.  There  is  no  subject  an 
artist  can  choose  that  is  so  absolutely  certain  of  gaining  him  an  admiring- 
audience  as  a  mother  and  her  babe.  Whether  it  is  a  mere  coarse  peasant 
nursing  her  infant  under  the  shelter  of  a  hay-rick,  or  a  Madonna  surrounded 
by  a  choir  of  angels  and  a  Divine  Wonder  in  her  arms,  or  Jochebed 
fleeing  with  the  child  Moses  from  the  insane  fury  of  Pharaoh,  and  with 
her  soul  divided  between  hope  and  fear  as  she  pauses  for  a  moment  ere 
she  tears  him  from  her  own  bosom  to  commit  him  to  that  of  the  Nile, 
the  theme,  as  old  as  the  first-born  of  "  the  thornless  garden  "  makes  the 
strongest  appeals  to  the  tenderest  of  human  sympathies.  Simmons'  statue 
of  Jochebed  is  a  work  that  no  interpretation  can  give  a  meaning  to  if  it 
does  not  interpret  itself  at  a  first  glance.     The  care-worn  woman  with 


128 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


her  Egyptian  coif  about  her  head,  with  her  clinging  garments  defining 
her  matronly  form,  and  with  the  innocent  babe  nestling  in  her  lap,  is 
gazing  intently,  eagerly  and  anxiously  at  the  wide  river  which  flows  at  her 
feet,  and  is  hesitating  to  do  what  she  knows  must  be  done.  The  story 
tells  itself  with  an  all-sufficient  completeness,  but  the  merits  of  the  statue 
do  not  by  any  means  exhaust  themselves  with  a  satisfactory  exposition 
of  the  subject.  The  finely  executed  engraving  which  we  give  of  this 
statue  shows  that  it  is  an  exceedingly  careful  and  conscientious  piece  of 
work,  in  which  all  the  details  are  elaborated  with  the  artists  best  skill. 
The  face  is  full  of  expression,  and  the  draperies,  while  broadly  massed, 
as  draperies  in  sculpture  always  should  be,  are  minutely  and  elaborately 
studied  in  a  manner  that  is  suggestive  of  some  of  the  best  antique  work. 
This  statue  was  executed  by  Simmons  for  Mr.  W.  S.  Appleton  of  Boston, 
and  it  is  one  of  the  earliest  of  his  important  works. 

Franklin  Simmons,  like  Gould,  and  indeed  a  majority  of  the  sculptors 
that  have  been  mentioned  in  this  work,  is  a  New  Englander  by  birth. 
When  a  school-boy,  and  when  going  through  college  he  showed  a 
remarkable  aptitude  for  drawing,  painting  and  modelling,  and  cultivated 
his  talents  with  such  good  effect  that  very  shortly  after  leaving  college  he 
decided  to  start  business  as  a  sculptor.  His  first  works  were  portrait 
busts,  and  these  were  so  satisfactory  to  the  subjects  and  their  friends, 
that  the  artist  was  encouraged  to  follow  the  example  of  numerous  other 
young  sculptors  by  going  to  Washington  for  the  purpose  of  seeking  orders 
among  the  public  men  of  the  day.  He  resided  in  Washington  during 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  Civil  War  period,  and  modelled  a  considerable 
number  of  busts  as  well  as  several  full-lengths.  In  1867  he  went  to  Italy, 
where  he  has  since  resided. 


The  Jochebed  was  one  of  the  first  noteworthy  results  achieved  after 


GANYMEDE. 

ENGRAVED    BY  J.H.BAKER,  FROM  THE   GROUP   BY  E.S.BARTHOLOMEW. 


GOULD,  SIMMONS,  BARTHOLOMEW  AND  A  A' LA'S. 


he  established  himself  in  Italy.    Later  he  made  a  marble  statue  of  Roger 
Williams  to  be  placed  in  the  National  Sculpture  Gallery  at  Washington 
as  one  of  the  contributions  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island.    As  this  work 
is  going  through  the  press  it  is  announced  that  Simmons  has  completed 
a  statue  of  Governor  King  of  Maine,  which  is  also  to  be  placed  in  the 
National  Sculpture  Gallery.    If  this  work  is  as  good  as  the  Roger  Williams 
it  is  very  good  indeed,  for  the  statue  of  the  founder  of  Rhode  Island 
is  a  performance  of  very  decided  merit.     It  is  an  ideal  statue,  as  no 
portraits  of  Roger  Williams  are  in  existence,  but  the  sculptor  evidently 
studied  his  subject  very  thoroughly,  and  succeeded  in  forming  in  his  own 
mind  a  very  strongly  defined  image  of  a  man  such  as  Williams  might 
have  been.     The  statue  has  been  a  good  deal  criticised,  chiefly,  it  has 
appeared  to  us,  because  it  does  not  correspond  with  ideals  which  some 
other  people  have  formed,  for  even  its  severest  critics  have  admitted  that, 
apart  from  all  questions  of  portraiture,  it  is  a  work  of  superior  excellence. 
It  is  worth  while  for  the  American  people  to  prize  highly,  and  to  give 
evidence  that  they  do,  a  work  of  the  very  genuine  artistic  qualities  of 
Simmons'  Roger  Williams,  as  their  National  Capitol  has  been  made  the 
depository  for  an  infinite  number  of  fearful  and  wonderful  things  in  the 
way  of  pictures  and  statuary.    The  National  Sculpture  Gallery  in  the  old 
Hall  of  Representatives,  in  particular,  is  filled  with  mediocrities  and  worse, 
in  the  midst  of  which  such  statues  as  Ward's  Putnam,  Brown's  Greene, 
Palmer's  Livingston  and  Simmons'  Ro^er  Williams  assert  themselves  with 
an  easy  superiority,  and  demonstrate  the  folly  of  giving  commissions  for 
important  national  works  to  beginners  and  pretenders  who  debase  the 
title  of  artist  by  arrogating  it  to  themselves. 

Another  very  recent  performance  by  Simmons — the  most  important, 
in  fact,  that  he  has  yet  executed — is  the  monument  to  Roger  Williams  at 
Providence,  Rhode  Island.    This  was  dedicated  on  October  16,  1877.  The 


13° 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


entire  work,  the  pedestal  as  well  as  the  statues  upon  it,  was  designed  by 
Simmons,  and  was  executed  at  a  cost  of  $25,000.  This  monument  is 
described  as  consisting  "of  a  broad  granite  base,  with  steps  rising  one 
above  another,  supporting  a  handsome  granite  pedestal,  and  surmounted 
by  a  bronze  figure  of  Roger  Williams,  seven  and  a  half  feet  high.  On 
the  steps  stands  History,  a  draped  figure  in  bronze,  writing  the  name  of 
Roger  Williams  on  the  pedestal.  *  *  *  *  The  figure  of  Williams  is 
ideal,  no  portrait  of  him  being  in  existence.  He  is  clad  in  the  historic 
costume  of  the  Puritans,  showing  the  entire  throat  and  neck;  the  coat 
collar  is  tied  with  a  ribbon,  the  jerkin  and  other  characteristic  garments 
of  the  time  are  there,  and  on  the  shoulders  rests  a  Genevan  cloak  which 
lends  much  dignity  to  the  whole  figure,  and  displays  unusual  grace  in 
the  flowing  folds.  The  left  hand  holds  a  large  Bible,  pressing  it  gently 
against  his  breast,  while  the  right  is  raised  as  in  persuasive  discourse. 
The  face  is  extremely  benignant,  combining  the  Puritan  expression  with 
great  spirituality.  The  forehead  is  singularly  noble.  The  hair  flows  down 
in  mellow  lines  nearly  to  the  shoulders.  The  statue  of  History  is  classical 
in  costume,  but  not  in  attitude,  and  the  beautiful  figure  of  the  Muse  forms 
a  striking  contrast  to  that  of  the  man  above,  to  whom  she  pays  reverence. 
This  combination  of  one  figure  above  another  is  altogether  novel,  and  has 
been  pronounced  bold  in  the  extreme."  Simmons  was  employed  for  four 
years  in  executing  the  models  for  this  work,  and  the  bronze  castings  were 
made  under  his  immediate  superintendence,  at  the  Munich  foundry.  The 
idea  of  raising  an  imposing  monument  to  the  founder  of  Rhode  Island 
was  formulated  by  the  freedmen  of  the  town  of  Providence  more  than  a 
hundred  years  ago,  but  circumstances  of  various  kinds  prevented  its 
accomplishment  until  recently.  The  city  is  now  indebted  to  a  descendant 
of  Roger  Williams,  if  not  for  the  monument,  at  least  for  the  beautiful 
Park  of  which  it  is  a  conspicuous  ornament.  This  Park,  which  was 
bequeathed  to   the  city  of  Providence  on  the  condition  that  a  suitable 


GOULD,  SIMMONS,  BARTHOLOMEW  AND  AKERS.  131 


monument  to  Roger  Williams  would  be  erected  within  its  boundaries,  by 
Miss  Betsey  Williams — the  descendant  above  alluded  to — is  the  same 
estate  that  Williams  received  from  the  Sachem  Miantonomah  as  a  special 
gift  in  token  of  friendship  and  good-will. 

Edward  Sheffield  Bartholomew  and  Benjamin  Akers — more  commonly 
known  as  Paul  Akers — were  men  who  died  before  they  had  fulfilled  all 
the  bright  promises  of  their  youth.  They  lived  long  enough  to  do  some 
notable  works,  however,  and  to  win  the  cordial  praises  of  the  most  dis- 
criminating critics  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Bartholomew  and  Akers 
were  nearly  of  an  age.  Bartholomew  was  a  native  of  the  town  of 
Colchester,  Connecticut,  and  was  born  in  1822;  Akers  was  born  at  Sacca- 
rappa,  in  Maine,  in  1825.  The  first  mentioned  died  at  Naples  in  1858, 
and  the  latter  at  Philadelphia  in  1861.  Bartholomew  was  originally  a 
book-binder  by  trade;  afterwards  he  tried  his  hand  at  dentistry.  It  was 
a  perusal  of  that  most  fascinating  of  autobiographies,  the  Memoirs  of 
Benvenuto  Cellini,  that  determined  him  to  become  an  artist.  As  he  was 
color-blind  he  determined  to  devote  himself  to  sculpture  rather  than  to 
painting.  Entering  as  a  student  of  the  National  Academy  of  Design,  in 
New  York,  he  worked  diligently  there  for  a  time,  until  being  appointed 
Curator  of  the  Wradsworth  Gallery,  at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  he  was  able 
to  pursue  his  studies  under  circumstances  peculiarly  advantageous  to  him. 
While  he  was  at  the  Wadsworth  Gallery  he  made  a  statue  of  Flora  and 
some  other  sculpturesque  works  of  less  importance.  Encouraged  by  the 
hearty  praises  bestowed  upon  these,  he  determined  to  go  to  Italy.  With 
the  exception  of  a  brief  visit  he  made  to  America  for  the  purpose  of 
superintending  the  erection  of  a  monument  to  Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrollton, 
he  resided  in  Italy  during  the  balance  of  his  life,  and  it  was  in  that 
country  that  nearly  all  his  important  works  were  produced.  After  Bar- 
tholomew's death  the  city  of  Hartford  became  possessed  of  his  models. 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


Bartholomew  was  an  artist  of  very  eminent  abilities,  and  had  he  lived 
he  would  undoubtedly  have  done  some  great  things  in  sculpture.  What 
he  did  accomplish  entitles  his  name  to  a  very  prominent  place  in  the  list 
of  the  American  sculptors,  as  all  of  his  best  works  are  distinguished  by 
refinement,  grace,  and  truly  poetical  sentiment.  Bartholomew's  best  work 
is  probably  the  Eve  Repentant  in  the  collection  of  the  late  Joseph  Harrison, 
Jr.,  of  Philadelphia,  although  the  Ganymede — of  which  we  give  an  engraving 
— has  won  for  itself  admiration  almost  as  great  as  that  which  has  been 
bestowed  upon  the  Eve.  In  the  Ganymede,  the  sculptor  has  not  permitted 
his  classic  theme  to  fetter  his  free  hand  with  purely  classic  traditions,  and 
the  work  is  very  distinctly  a  modern  one,  in  spite  of  its  subject.  He 
translated  the  old  legend  in  his  own  way,  and  was  doubtless  wise  in  so 
doing,  for  he  gave  the  world  something  original,  and  an  original  work  of 
genuine  merit  is  always  to  be  prized  above  an  imitation,  no  matter  how  clever 
the  latter  may  be.  Among  the  works  executed  by  Bartholomew,  may  be 
mentioned  as  the  most  important,  a  Blind  Homer  led  by  His  Daughter; 
a  Calypso;  a  Sappho;  a  Shepherd  Boy  of  the  Campagna;  the  Genius  of 
Painting;  the  Genius  of  Music;  Belisarius;  Hagar  and  Ishmael;  Ruth  an-d 
Naomi;  Youth  and  Old  Age;  Genevieve,  and  the  Evening  Star. 

Akers  commenced  work  as  a  sculptor  in  Boston  in  1849,  where  he 
found  some  one  to  instruct  him  in  clay  modelling  and  plaster  casting. 
Among  his  earliest  works  of  consequence  were  a  head  of  Christ  and  some 
portrait  busts,  which  attracted  attention  by  their  very  intrinsic  qualities, 
and  which  served  to  obtain  for  him  commissions.  Well-executed  busts 
of  Longfellow,  Samuel  Appleton,  Professor  Cleveland  and  other  prominent 
gentlemen,  added  to  his  reputation  and  provided  him  with  the  means  to 
go  to  Europe.  He  resided  for  a  year  in  Florence,  studying  hard  all  the 
time,  and  on  his  return  to  America  he  made  a  statue  of  Benjamin  in 
Egypt.    When  this,  his  first  full-length  statue  was  completed,  he  modelled 


GOULD,  SIMMONS,  DAR1 HOLOMEW  AND  AKERS.  133 


busts  for  a  time  in  Washington,  and  then  in  1854  he  again  went  to  Italy 
and  took  up  his  residence  in  Rome.  It  was  in  Rome  that  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Hawthorne,  who  was  so  impressed  with  his  beautiful  statue 
of  the  Pearl  Diver,  that  he  appropriated  it,  along  with  Story's  Cleopatra, 
and  another  of  Akers'  works — a  really  noble  bust  of  Milton — for  his 
imaginary  sculptor  Kenyon,  in  the  romance  of  The  Marble  Fawn.  Akers' 
health  was  very  poor  during  the  last  years  of  his  life,  and  he  consequently 
did  not  accomplish  a  very  great  amount  of  work.  What  he  did  do, 
however,  is  in  a  high  degree  excellent,  and  his  Una  and  the  Lion ; 
Isaiah ;  Diana  and  Endymion ;  St.  Elizabeth  of  Hungary — to  mention  a 
few  of  his  finest  performances — have  won  the  commendations  of  those 
who  do  not  lavish  their  praises  indiscriminately.  Akers  came  back  to 
the  United  States  in  i860,  and  died  in  the  following  year. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


HARRIET  HOSMER  AND  OTHER  FEMALE  SCULPTORS 


ID  it  ever  occur  to  any  one  that  such  a  baby-faced  heroine  as 

Guido's  portrait  of  Beatrice  Cenci,  in  the  Barberini  Palace  in 

Rome,  represents,  was  the  most  likely  person  of  all  others  to 

be  the  central  figure  in  a  tragedy  of  the  peculiar  kind  that  has  made  the 

name  of  Cenci  infamous  ?    Miss  Hosmer  seems  to  have  been  impressed 

with  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  face — not  merely  that  indefinable 

expression  which  is  such  a  puzzle  to  all  who  have  gazed  on  Guido's 

picture — and  she  has  made  an  earnest  attempt  to  reproduce  it  in  her 

recumbent  statue  of  Beatrice  asleep  on  the  morning  of  her  execution. 

The  word  innocence  does  not  describe  the  singular  qualities  of  this  face, 

and  it  is  as  far  removed  as  possible  from  the  graceful  animalism  of  the 

Faun  of  Praxitiles;  it  is  a  true  baby-face  that  has  something  in  it  other 

than  the  innocence  of  a  babe,  and  that  suggests,  somehow,  a  lack  of 

ability  to  understand   or  appreciate  human  responsibilities  of  the  most 

ordinary  kind.     It  is  the  sphynx-like  character  of  Guido's  portrait,  that 

fascinates  while  it  presents  an  unanswerable  problem  in  human  nature, 

that  has  kept  alive  the  memory  of  Beatrice  Cenci,  and  the  altogether 

disgusting  story  of  crime  in  which  she  figures  so  prominently. 
134 


HARRIET  HOSMER  AND  OTHER  FEMALE  SCULPTORS.  135 


As  for  Miss  Hosmer's  statue,  it  is  frank  enough  in  its  meanings. 
The  girl  has  fallen,  exhausted  in  mind  and  body,  into  a  profound  and 
dreamless  sleep,  and  is  absolutely  unconscious  of  the  swift  passing  moments 
that  are  bringing  her  nearer  and  nearer  her  doom.  There  is  an  uncon- 
scious and  unstudied  grace  in  the  very  expressive  attitude  into  which  her 
figure  has  fallen,  with  a  prayer  half  said  upon  her  lips  and  her  limp  hand 
unclasping  itself  from  the  beads  of  the  rosary,  which,  ere  sleep  overwhelmed 
her  with  a  happy  oblivion,  she  had  been  telling  over  with  the  fervor  of 
utter  despair.  That  Guido's  picture  was  the  inspiration  for  the  statue  is 
evident,  and  the  sculptress  is  to  be  credited  with  a  most  sympathetic 
interpretation  of  her  original.  This  interesting  work,  which,  with  the 
exception  of  her  Zenobia,  is  the  most  celebrated  of  the  sculptures  executed 
by  Miss  Hosmer,  is  in  the  public  library  at  St.  Louis. 

Harriet  Hosmer,  the  most  famous  of  American  female  sculptors,  was 
born  at  Watertown,  Massachusetts,  in  1830.  Her  father  was  a  physician, 
and  she  was  encouraged  by  him  to  follow  her  natural  inclination  for  out- 
door exercise  and  athletic  sports.  The  death  of  her  mother  when  she  was 
quite  a  child  threw  her  greatly  on  her  own  resources,  and  under  the 
peculiar  system  pursued  with  regard  to  her  by  her  father,  who  was  anxious 
to  counteract  a  tendency  to  consumption,  she  speedily  developed  into  a 
good  deal  of  a  Tom-boy,  and  was  more  expert  at  hunting  bird's-nests, 
riding  horses,  and  indeed  all  manner  of  boyish  pastimes  and  mischiefs 
than  she  was  at  needle-work  and  the  usual  girlish  exercises.  When  quite 
a  child  she  was  a  taxidermist  of  no  little  skill,  and  prepared  a  number 
of  specimens  of  her  own  shooting,  and  at  the  early  age  of  eight  years  she 
showed  such  a  strong  predisposition  for  artistic  pursuits  as  to  induce  her 
friends  to  believe  that  it  would  be  worth  while  to  cultivate  her  talents.  Miss 
Hosmer's  first  serious  artistic  essays  were  as  a  painter.  She  began  this 
practice  when  about  sixteen  years  of  age,  but  conceiving  that  sculpture 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


was  a  higher  form  of  art  she  undertook  to  learn  modelling,  and  was  so 
successful  in  making  a  statuette  from  a  figure  in  an  engraving  which  took 
her  fancy,  that  she  was  persuaded  to  believe  her  genius  had  at  last 
found  its  proper  field  of  employment.  She  next  attempted  a  number  of 
ideal  busts  and  portraits  of  her  intimate  friends,  and  having  gotten  her 
hand  in  a  measure  trained  to  the  proper  wielding  of  a  sculptor's  tools,  she 
made  an  essay  in  marble  by  copying  in  reduced  size  a  colossal  bust  of 
Napoleon  by  Canova.  At  the  time  she  was  making  these  tentative  efforts 
in  the  art  of  sculpture,  she  was  also  going  through  the  process  of  being 
"finished"  at  the  celebrated  Female  Seminary  -kept  by  Mrs.  Sedgwick  at 
Lenox,  Massachusetts.  The  attendance  at  this  Seminary  had  a  potent 
influence  on  her  destiny  in  more  ways  than  one.  To  her  able  and  amiable 
preceptress  she  was  indebted  for  influences  which  moulded  her  rather 
wayward  character  in  such  a  manner  that  from  a  hoydenish  girl  who 
would  acknowledge  no  restraints,  she  speedily  developed  into  a  self-poised 
woman  with  all  her  faculties  in  training,  and  with  her  character  formed  in 
such  a  manner  that  she  was  prepared  to  follow  her  chosen  career  with 
steadfastness  as  well  as  energy  and  perseverance.  To  a  friendship  which 
was  formed  while  at  Mrs.  Sedgwick's  school,  Miss  Hosmer  owed  the 
most  active  and  sympathetic  encouragements  which  surrounded  her  in 
the  novitiate  stages  of  her  artistic  career.  Her  intimate  among  her 
school-mates  was  a  Miss  Crowe,  the  daughter  of  a  prominent  citizen  of  St. 
Louis.  On  leaving  school  she  went  home  with  this  young  lady,  and  what 
at  the  outset  promised  to  be  nothing  more  than  a  mere  friendly  sojourn 
with  the  family  of  a  school-mate,  proved  to  be  the  turning-point  of  her 
career.  Mr.  Crowe,  the  father  of  her  friend,  if  at  first  he  was  attracted  to 
Miss  Hosmer  by  her  originality  and  her  eccentricities,  very  soon  became 
satisfied  that  his  daughter  had  brought  beneath  his  roof  a  genius,  and  a 
very  rare  one,  and  a  liking  for  the  very  independent  and  rather  odd  young 
lady  speedily  developed  into  a  cordial  admiration.    The  admiration  of  Mr. 


JTO  C  HE  IB  E  Bo 


HA  RRIET  HO  SHIER  A  ND  O  THER  EE  MA  LE  SCULPTORS.  137 

Crowe,  however,  took  an  eminently  praetical  turn,  and  he  made  it  both  a 
duty  and  a  pleasure  to  encourage  and  stimulate  Miss  Hosmer  to  cultivate 
her  great  talents  to  the  utmost. 

For  a  time,  however,  Miss  Hosmer's  Bohemian  disposition  got  the 
better  of  her  desire  to  win  for  herself  a  great  name  as  an  artist.  She  had 
not  been  long  enough  released  from  the  restraint  of  Mrs.  Sedgwick's 
school  to  find  it  an  easy  matter  to  settle  down  to  hard  work,  without  first 
gratifying  the  roving  impulses  which  were  strongly  moving  within  her. 
She,  therefore,  started  off  without  an  escort  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  for 
herself  some  of  the  wonders  of  wThat  in  those  days  was  called  the  Great 
West,  and  penetrated  into  the  wilderness  as  far  as  the  Falls  of  St.  Antony 
in  Minnesota.  With  the  savages  residing  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Falls 
Miss  Hosmer  managed  to  get  upon  terms  of  friendly  intimacy,  and  her 
residence  among  them  was  one  of  the  most  pleasurable  episodes  in  her 
career.  All  this  sort  of  thing  was  not  by  any  means  bad  preparation 
for  the  drudgery  in  the  modelling  room  and  the  dissecting  room,  which 
it  was  essential  should  be  gone  through  with  before  she  could  produce 
anything  in  the  way  of  sculptures  that  would  be  entitled  to  praise  from 
other  than  warm  personal  friends. 

Having  satisfied  her  adventuresome  longings  by  her  trip  to  the  Falls 
of  St.  Antony,  Miss  Hosmer  returned  to  St.  Louis,  and  went  to  work  with 
a  right  good  will  to  give  justification  for  the  high  expectations  which  her 
friend  Mr.  Crowe  had  formed  with  regard  to  her.  Under  the  direction  of 
Dr.  McDowell  she  studied  anatomy,  and  was  one  of  the  most  regular 
attendants  in  his  dissecting  room.  She  also  practiced  constantly  at 
modelling  in  clay,  and  when  she  had  obtained  some  proficiency  in  the 
production  of  forms  she  essayed  putting  her  modellings  into  marble.  A 
bust  in  marble  of  Dr.  McDowell  was  one  of  the  first  of  the  performances 


i3« 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


which  she  deemed  of  sufficient  merit  to  go  out  of  her  own  possession. 
This  was  presented  to  Mr.  Crowe.  Other  portrait  busts  were  followed  by 
a  Hesper,  a  work  of  truly  ideal  beauty  which  excited  the  admiration  of 
other  than  partial  critics. 

By  this  time  Miss  Hosmer  had  exhausted  such  facilities  for  thorough 
artistic  instructions  as  America  afforded,  and  by  the  advice  of  her  best 
friends  she  decided  to  go  to  Rome.  With  a  daguerreotype  of  her  Hesper, 
as  a  specimen  of  her  abilities,  in  her  possession,  she  sailed  for  Europe,  in 
company  with  her  father,  in  1852.  On  arriving  at  Rome  she  obtained 
an  introduction  to  the  English  sculptor  Gibson,  and  that  excellent  artist, 
after  looking  at  the  daguerreotype  of  the  Hesper,  consented  at  once  to 
admit  her  to  his  studio  as  a  pupil.  Miss  Hosmer  studied  and  worked 
under  Gibson's  direction  until  his  death. 

The  statue  of  Zenobia,  which  is,  perhaps,  taking  it  all  in  all,  Miss 
Hosmer's  highest  artistic  achievement,  represents  the  captive  Queen  of 
Palmyra,  walking  with  stately  and  royal  tread  in  the  triumphal  procession 
of  her  Roman  conqueror.  The  figure  is  full  of  dignity  and  queenly  grace, 
with  a  fine  expression  of  sorrow  and  disdain  on  the  face,  and  it  represents 
the  ripe  results  of  a  rare  native  genius,  cultivated  and  brought  to  per- 
fection under  the  training  of  a  master  who  was  himself  an  artist  of  very 
superior  abilities  and  very  superior  attainments,  but  who  fettered  himself 
with  theories  about  the  objects  and  aims  of  sculpture  which  condemned 
him  to  be  an  imitator  rather  than  a  creator. 

The  Zenobia  was  sculptured  some  time  after  the  Beatrice  Cenci,  and 
it  confirmed  the  very  favorable  impressions  which  that  work  made.  It 
was  the  Beatrice  Cenci  which  first  made  Miss  Hosmer's  name  known  to 
the  English  public,  and  which  introduced  her  to  all  of  her  countrymen 


HARRIET  HOSMER  AND  OTHER  REM  ALE  SCULPTORS.  139 


except  the  few  friends  who  had  appreciated  her  talents  and  encouraged 
their  exercise.  The  Beatrice  Cenci  was  first  exhibited  in  the  Royal  Aca- 
demy in  London,  and  it  was  afterwards  shown  in  New  York  and  other 
American  cities,  previous  to  being  placed  in  the  Public  Library  at  St. 
Louis.  On  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  it  excited  admiration,  and  it  is  now 
regarded  as  one  of  the  chief  art  treasures  of  the  city  where  Miss  Hosmer 
first  studied  art,  and  where  she  made  her  first  serious  essays  as  a  sculptor. 
The  public  Library  of  St.  Louis  is  also  the  depository  of  another  import- 
ant work  by  her.  This  is  the  CEnone  mourning  over  her  desertion  by 
Paris — the  first  full-length  statue  modelled  by  the  artist  after  she  com- 
menced work  in  Rome  under  the  direction  of  Gibson.  The  QEnone  was 
purchased  from  Miss  Hosmer  by  her  friend  and  helper,  Mr.  Crowe,  and  by 
that  gentleman  was  presented  to  the  institution  which  now  owns  it.  At 
a  later  period  Miss  Hosmer  made,  on  a  commission  from  the  State  of 
Missouri,  a  full-length  statue  of  Hon.  Thomas  H.  Benton.  Among  the 
other  important  works  by  this  artist  may  be  mentioned  a  charming  figure 
of  Puck;  busts  of  Daphne  and  Medusa,  which  were  executed  for  Samuel 
Appleton,  of  Boston ;  a  bust  of  Mrs.  Cass ;  a  statue  of  a  Sleeping  Faun ; 
and  a  monumental  statue,  in  memory  of  a  beautiful  French  girl. 

Emma  Stebbins,  a  native  of  New  York,  like  Miss  Hosmer,  has  long 
had  her  residence  in  Rome,  whither  she  went  some  years  ago,  when, 
throwing  aside  her  palette,  she  decided  to  abandon  painting  for  sculpture. 
Miss  Stebbins  originally,  we  believe,  devoted  herself  to  the  practice  of 
art  merely  for  the  sake  of  the  amusement  which  it  afforded  her.  With 
her  friends  for  models,  she  painted  portraits  and  figure  studies,  and 
improved  her  style  by  occasionally  making  a  careful  copy  of  a  good  picture. 
Her  success  as  an  amateur  was  such  that  she  finally  determined  to  become 
a  professional  artist,  and,  although  up  to  the  time  of  making  this  deci- 
sion she  had  worked  chiefly  as  a  painter,  sculpture  offered  such  particular 


140 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


attractions  that  she  took  it  up  in  preference  to  painting.  Her  first 
important  work  after  going  to  Rome  was  a  statuette  of  Joseph.  This 
elicited  warm  commendation  from  good  judges,  and  it  was  speedily 
followed  by  other  and  more  elaborate  performances,  the  chief  of  which  is 
the  fountain  statue  executed  for  Central  Park,  New  York,  and  now  one 
of  the  artistic  adornments  of  that  noble  pleasure  ground.  This  statue  is 
called  the  Angel  of  the  Waters,  and  represents  the  heavenly  visitor 
who  periodically  visited  the  Pool  of  Bethesda  and  conferred  upon  its 
waters  their  healing  powers.  The  idea  is  a  beautiful  one,  and  it  has 
been  very  beautifully  worked  out.  Other  statues  in  Central  Park  perhaps 
surpass  this  one  in  particulars  of  greater  or  less  importance,  but  there  is 
something  in  it  that  appeals  forcibly  to  the  imagination  of  the  average 
man  and  woman,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  admired  and  popular  works 
that  the  Park  contains.  Of  Miss  Stebbins'  other  sculpturesque  perform- 
ances there  are  especially  worthy  of  mention  a  statue  of  Horace  Mann 
and  one  of  Columbus.     The  last  named  has  been  very  greatly  praised. 

One  of  the  most  important  works  executed  by  Margaret  Foley,  a 
native  of  Vermont,  is  a  fountain. which,  during  the  progress  of  the  Cen- 
tennial Exhibition  in  Philadelphia,  was  placed  in  the  centre  of  the  Hor- 
ticultural Hall.  This  fountain,  although  on  account  of  not  being  in  the 
Art  Department  of  the  Exhibition,  it  escaped  the  notice  of  most  of  the 
art  critics  and  of  a  good  many  of  the  visitors  to  the  Exhibition,  was  very 
much  better  placed  lor  the  revelation  of  its  best  qualities  than  almost  any 
of  the  statuary  in  the  Exhibition.  It  was  in  admirable  harmony  with  its 
graceful  surroundings,  and  it  was  for  that  very  reason  a  marked  feature 
of  the  show  in  a  greater  degree  than  were  many  other  superior  works 
which,  in  spite  of  their  superiority,  were  almost  lost  in  the  multitudes  of 
pictures  and  statuary  that  filled  the  Memorial  Hall  and  overflowed  into 
its  annex.     The  basin  of  this  fountain  is  exceedingly  elegant  in  design, 


HARRIET  HOSMER  AND  OTHER  FEMALE  SCULPTORS 


141 


it  being  formed  of  broad  leaves  which  thrust  out  from  a  central  stream 
and,  by  overlapping  each  other,  form  a  receptacle  for  the  water.  Upon 
the  ground  beneath  the  basin  are  two  boys  and  a  girl  engaged  in  child- 
ish sports.  These  figures  are  modelled  with  much  refinement,  and  they 
are  important  elements  in  a  charming  composition.  Other  contributions 
by  Miss  Foley  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition  were  a  colossal  bust  of  the 
Prophet  Jeremiah  and  one  life-size  of  Cleopatra.  Some  of  this  artist's 
portrait  sculptures  have  achieved  much  celebrity,  as,  for  instance,  her  bust 
of  Hon.  Charles  Sumner,  and  her  bas-reliefs  of  the  poets  Longfellow  and 
Bryant,  the  artist-poet  T.  Buchanan  Reid  and  his  wife,  and  William  and 
Mary  Howitt. 

An  even  more  remarkable  sculpture  from  the  hand  of  a  female  artist 
than  Miss  Foley's  fountain  which  was  in  the  Centennial  Exhibition  was 
the  Cleopatra  of  Edmonia  Lewis.  This  was  not  a  beautiful  work,  but  it 
was  a  very  original  and  very  striking  one,  and  it  deserves  particular  com- 
ment, as  its  ideal  was  so  radically  different  from  those  adopted  by  Story 
and  Gould  in  their  statues  of  the  Egyptian  Queen.  Story  gave  his 
Cleopatra  Nubian  features,  and  achieved  an  artistic  if  not  a  historical 
success  by  so  doing.  The  Cleopatra  of  Gould  suggests  a  Greek  lineage. 
Miss  Lewis,  on  the  other  hand,  has  followed  the  coins,  medals,  and  other 
authentic  records  in  giving  her  Cleopatra  an  aquiline  nose  and  a  prominent 
chin  of  the  Roman  type,  for  the  Egyptian  Queen  appears  to  have  had 
such  features  rather  than  such  as  would  more  positively  suggest  her 
Grecian  descent.  This  Cleopatra,  therefore,  more  nearly  resembled  the 
real  heroine  of  history  than  either  of  the  others,  which,  however,  it  should 
be  remembered,  laid  no  claims  to  being  other  than  purely  ideal  works. 
Miss  Lewis'  Cleopatra,  like  the  figures  sculptured  by  Story  and  Gould,  is 
seated  in  a  chair ;  the  poison  of  the  asp  has  done  its  work,  and  the  Queen 
is  dead.     The  effects  of  death  are  represented  with  such  skill  as  to  be 


142 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


absolutely  repellant — and  it  is  a  question  whether  a  statue  of  the  ghastly 
characteristics  of  this  one  does  not  overstep  the  bounds  of  legitimate 
art.  Apart  from  all  questions  of  taste,  however,  the  striking  qualities  of 
the  work  are  undeniable,  and  it  could  only  have  been  produced  by  a 
sculptor  of  very  genuine  endowments. 

Edmonia  Lewis,  the  artist  of  this  statue,  is  partly  of  Indian  and 
partly  of  African  descent.  She  was  born  in  the  town  of  Greenbank, 
near  Albany,  in  New  York  State,  and  her  first  appeal  for  public  recog- 
nition as  a  sculptor  was  made  at  the  Fair  held  in  Boston,  during  the 
progress  of  the  civil  war,  in  aid  of  the  Soldiers'  Relief  Fund.  At  that 
Fair  she  exhibited  a  bust  of  the  gallant  Colonel  Shaw,  who  was  killed 
on  Morris  Island  while  leading  his  negro  regiment  to  the  assault  of  Fort 
Wagner.  The  subject  of  this  work  made  it  an  object  of  interest,  wThile 
its  intrinsic  merits  won  for  it  cordial  commendation,  which  inquiry  into  the 
lineage  and  circumstances  of  the  artist  very  naturally  did  not  diminish. 
The  exhibition  of  this  portrait  of  Colonel  Shaw  gave  Miss  Lewis  some- 
thing more  than  a  fair  start  in  the  active  practice  of  her  profession. 
The  next  piece  which  she  produced  was  more  elaborate.  The  subject  was 
The  Freedwoman,  who  was  represented  as  overcome  by  a  conflict  of  emo- 
tions on  receiving  the  tidings  of  her  liberation,  and  the  pathos  of  the 
situation  was  interpreted  in  a  sympathetic  spirit.  Since  the  execution  of 
this  statue,  Miss  Lewis,  up  to  the  time  of  the  opening  of  the  Centennial 
Exhibition,  did  not  keep  herself  very  prominently  before  the  public,  and 
to  many  of  the  visitors  to  that  Exhibition,  who  only  knew  of  her  by  vague 
report,  the  real  power  of  her  Cleopatra  was  a  revelation. 

Vinnie  Reams  has  been  engaged  in  the  practice  of  sculpture  in 
Washington  for  several  years,  and  has  had  the  good  or  ill  fortune  to 
figure  in  the  newspapers  with  considerably  more  prominence  than  almost 


HARRIET  HOSMRR  AND  OTHER  REM  ALE  SCULPTORS.  143 


any  other  female  American  artist  of  the  day.  Her  full-length  statue  of 
Lincoln  in  the  old  Hall  of  Representatives  in  the  Capitol,  in  particular,  has 
been  repeatedly  referred  to,  and  not  in  complimentary  terms.  This  work, 
however,  has  scarcely  received  fair  treatment  at  the  hands  of  those  who 
have  undertaken  to  describe  it  and  to  discuss  its  merits.  That  Congress 
was  not  justified  in  giving  a  commission  for  an  important  statue  like  this 
to  a  very  young  and  very  imperfectly  trained  artist,  does  not  admit  of 
dispute,  and  that  the  statue  is  not  at  all  up  to  the  standard  of  excellence 
which  ought  to  be  insisted  upon  for  such  a  collection  of  the  effigies  of 
national  heroes  as  is  in  process  of  formation  in  the  Capitol,  also  does  not 
admit  of  dispute.  There  is  this,  however,  to  be  said  about  Miss  Ream's 
Lincoln : — although  it  is  a  crude  and  unsatisfactory  performance,  it  has 
undeniable  merits,  and  no  unprejudiced  person  can  look  at  it  without  de- 
ciding that  it  was  executed  by  an  artist  of  real  talent.  Miss  Ream  has 
been  much  more  successful  in  representing  in  a  not  ungainly  manner  the 
peculiar  ungainliness  of  Lincoln's  figure  than  have  most  of  the  male 
sculptors  who  have  attempted  to  make  full-length  portraits  of  him,  and 
were  a  sculptor  who  is  a  thorough  master  of  the  technicalities  of  his  art, 
to  go  over  her  statue  and  remove  the  traces  of  crude  workmanship  which 
disfigure  it,  that  which  now  gives  offence  in  it  could  easily  be  made  to 
disappear.  As  it  stands,  this  is  really  a  better  work  than  some  of  the 
statues  in  the  same  room  that  have  been  executed  by  artists  of  greater 
repute  and  greater  experience  than  Miss  Ream.  In  addition  to  this  statue 
Miss  Ream  has  made  a  number  of  portrait  and  ideal  busts,  and  several 
full-length  statues.  Selections  of  what  she  probably  regarded  as  her  best 
performances  were  shown  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition.  These  were  a 
bust  of  a  Child,  a  bust  of  Senator  Morrell,  and  ideal  sculptures  entitled 
The  Spirit  of  the  Carnival,  The  West,  and  Miriam. 

Blanche  Nevin,  of  Philadelphia,  studied  at  the  Pennsylvania  Academy 


144 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURES. 


of  the  Fine  Arts,  and  also  under  J.  A.  Bailly.  The  pretty  little  statue  of 
Cinderella,  of  which  we  give  a  carefully  executed  engraving  on  this  page 
is  an  excellent  specimen  of  her  style.  This  girlish  figure,,  lost  in  dreams 
of  what  might  happen,  if  the  crooked  ways  of  Fortune  would  only 
straighten  themselves  out,  is  gracefully  conceived  and  gracefully  executed. 
It  is  a  representative  of  a  class  of  sculpturesque  works  that  the  best 
lovers  of  the  beautiful  art  of  sculpture  may  well  wish  to  see  become  much 
more  common  than  they  are  at  present,  for  they  appeal  to  a  larger  audience 
than  do  the  heroic  and  classic  themes  which  so  many  artists  insist  on 
treating,  to  their  own  hurt  and  to  the  bewilderment  of  plain  people.  Miss 
Nevin  has  made  a  number  of  busts,  and  her  full-length  statue  of  Eve  is 
a  careful  study  of  the  nude,  the  merits  of  which,  at  the  exhibition  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  when  it  was  first  shown  to 
the  public,  asserted  themselves  successfully  in  comparison  with  many  of 
the  works  of  more  experienced  artists  by  which  it  was  surrounded. 


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